The Uzumaki Namikaze Legend
by Kuma Akuma
Summary: One visit, that's all it takes to change a tale. Watch Naruto as one day a visit to the Hokage changes his entire life, but is it for the better? Will he truly rise up and become the strongest Hokage? Yes he will, for he is, the son of Kushina Uzumaki and Namikaze Minato. He has a legacy to uphold! Stronger Naruto (but not Godly) Smarter Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

**I Own Nothing. Sadly.**

**A Visit that can Change Lives! Academic Happiness!**

Naruto Uzumaki wasn't your run-of-the-mill orphan. He was, as every orphan was, without a parent. He was, as every orphan was, lonely. He was, as every orphan was, sad. He wasn't, as almost every orphan was, looked at with pity and kindness however.

No Naruto Uzumaki was looked at with disdain and hatred. Simply walking down the streets incurred several cruel beatings. He had no idea why, but the entire population of Konohagakure no Sato seemed to hate him. He had very few precious people, in fact the only ones he could name of the top of his head were Hiruzen Sarutobi, or as he had dubbed the Hokage, jiji, Ayame, a girl who helped her father run a nearby ramen shop, and Teuchi, the father of said girl. It was sad actually, a boy his age, eleven, being hated by everyone.

Naruto looked glum as he walked over to the Hokage tower. His usual bright cerulean eyes filled with mischief and happiness were dull and sad, and his blond spiky hair covered his eyes. He was glared at by the people of the village; however they weren't dumb enough to do anything to him so close to the Hokage. Even the Anbu that were supposed to watch him, but usually slacked off, were paying attention.

Naruto walked through the doors of the tower and straight past the secretary; however he earned a glare from her at doing so. She hated him to, although she would at least appreciate it when demons respected her. She wasn't bottom-of-the-barrel trash like him.

He walked up the stairs of the bleak tower before he turned, looking at the double, wooden doors in front of him. He sighed and pushed them in, speaking in a timid voice.

"Jiji?"

The man sitting at the desk looked at Naruto with shock. The man was light skinned of below-average stature with grey spiked hair with a small goatee. He had pronounced cheekbones, few wrinkles, and a wart near his left nostril and a few liver-spots. He wore the customary hat of the Hokage and a haori, along with a red, full-length kimono that was tied using a white sash. He was smoking a pipe.

However, the man was shocked by Naruto's clothes. The black shirt with the red spiral in the middle was in tatters, and his orange shorts had been nearly torn off. It made him seriously wonder if the Anbu he sent to guard Naruto did their job, and even more than that, if the villagers of Konoha had all but lost their mind. He understood them not understanding much about fuinjutsu, but this was ridiculous.

"Come in Naruto."

The boy walked in the room, not releasing any of his usual brash and extroverted behavior. In fact, if anything he looked scared. He ignored the oval room, that while usually filled with stacks of unfinished paperwork, was clean and the large window behind the old mans back.

He began to talk, "Jiji why do people hate me?"

Hiruzen sighed. He couldn't tell the boy about the Kyuubi, even if the three whisker marks per cheek gave it away quite easily, it would be foolhardy; however he couldn't just leave him there wondering. Sometimes he hated being the Hokage, paperwork, the spawn of the devil, giving out missions knowing that some of his shinobi were not going to return from, and this, lying to the people he cared about.

"Naruto they are not wise. They do not see you for you, but only for a creature that used to live in the village. They are blinded by hatred, and take it out on you."

"But why me!?"

"I don't know."

Naruto frowned as he sat down on the hardwood floor. "Why me…"

Hiruzen frowned at the boy. He truly pitied him, and in a way he was his only true precious person. It pained him that he had to lie to the boy, especially when he had so few that cared about him, but he had no choice.

"Naruto how was your day at the Academy?"

"Bad, there were these big jerks that picked on me and then I had to spar with Sasuke, and of course he won, so all the girls fawned over him, AGAIN!"

'_It comes with being an Uchiha. Girls fall for the dark look, it's weird though. Naruto's personality, if he matured, would be perfect for many girls_,' the Hokage thought, chuckling to himself. However, he noticed that talking about the Academy seemed to cheer Naruto up, as he had begun to yell, so he pressed the topic.

"Make any friends?"

"Well…no."

And just like that the mood was killed. He really wished Minato was here, it would help so much. The man could relate to Naruto.

"I'm sorry about that Naruto, however I may have something that can cheer you up."

Naruto immediately went back to his normal behavior, an exuberant brat or, more specifically, an exceedingly hyper, short, blonde haired brat. He ran over to where the Hokage was, bouncing up and down with excitement.

"What is it? What is it?"

"Calm down Naruto," the old man chuckled out before he opened the drawer to his desk. He grabbed a small card from the desk drawer.

"Naruto, you said that you wanted to become the Hokage right?"

Naruto nodded, still wanting to know what his gift was.

"Well, this card gives you access to the shinobi library. Now originally I wouldn't let you have this card until you were a shinobi, however you seem to be in a dire situation, so I'll let it slide. Grab something you think may be helpful. The basics on shuriken and kunai throwing, a taijutsu style, chakra theory, and I think you may have a natural knack for fuinjutsu. Also, if you want to be Hokage you have to be well educated in politics, meaning get a few books on that. Also, get a change of clothes with this money, it should help. NO ORANGE. Shinobi are not supposed to stick out like a sore thumb."

The Hokage handed Naruto money, looking strictly at him.

"Okay, but the shops don't let me go in them."

"Well, for the library just say the Hokage is allowing you to since I control it. As for the shops, there is one shop you could enter, called Higarashi Shinobi. Go there, it should be helpful."

Naruto nodded excitedly, before rushing out of the room. He was going to go to the library immediately, and then focus on training. He was going to rub it in that Uchiha's face when he got to the Academy tomorrow.

The Hokage smiled. Now if only he could get those Anbu straightened out, and make sure that he could help the boy along. While he didn't have enough time on his hands to personally train the boy he knew two people who would love to train him. One was the only other man who knew who Naruto's parents were other than Jiraiya and Tsunade and the other was a purple haired, blood loving woman.

XxX

Naruto pushed open the doors of the library, smiling all the time. He frowned when he saw all the books however. He hated books, absolutely hated them. If you gave him a jutsu or other cool new technique he would be all for it, however books were the bane of his existence. They were, simply put, evil beyond belief.

He walked through the library, trying to find anything of use. As he walked down the 'Shinobi Basics,' aisle he found a book that looked helpful.

"'The Guide to Being a Good Ninja.' Sounds good."

Naruto grabbed the book before continuing on his journey. By the time he had reached the fuinjutsu aisle he had several books and scrolls in his hands, all on exactly what he was told to get. However, his luck, which was actually quite good to get this far and not get caught, had run out.

"What are you doing here _demon_," sneered a lady.

He turned to face the black haired lady. She had caramel eyes, which just screamed out hatred, and wore a red dress.

"The Hokage said I could be here, I even have his card," Naruto said, producing the card as if he could pull things from midair.

The lady frowned. She knew the Hokage and the boy were close, although she had no idea why such a sacred person like the Hokage would want to protect something that was worse than filth. Still, the Hokage would support the boy over herself so she could do nothing but have fits about the demon being in her library. She would definitely lose business over this.

"Fine, but if you ruin any book you're paying for a new one," she said, stalking away, obvious anger in her steps.

Naruto smirked and continued on his way.

XxX

Naruto had gotten all of the books that he needed. Now he was headed to the Higarashi Shinobi shop. While he knew it wasn't in the civilian shops section, as they rarely had decent shinobi gear, he didn't know where in the shinobi shopping section it was in. He hoped that he would pass it on his walks through the area, but that in itself was doubtful. Looking up was painful.

While the shinobi seemed to not hate him as much the ones that did hate him hated him with a passion. The amount decreased, but the pressure increased. He would show them. He would show all of them that he would be the best ninja and Hokage ever. Everyone would respect him then.

He continued his search for the place before spotting the shop. It was surrounded by small tress and had a katana as its logo. He walked inside the shop to see a massive array of weapons that made him drool.

He was never much of a person for weapons, he liked relying on kunai and shuriken as his main weapons, but the sight of this many was attracting, but he wouldn't use any of them.

"Excuse me, are you lost?"

Naruto turned sharply, surprised by the appearance of the girl. She had dark brown eyes and brown hair. She wore a pink sleeveless qipao-style blouse with red sleeve trimmings and yellow fastened buttons, with dark green pants and standard blue ninja sandals. Her hair had Chinese-style buns on either side of her head with short fringe-bangs falling over her forehead.

"Hello, little guy," the girl said.

Naruto stumbled over words before blushing. "Hi."

She smiled, at him. "You're so cute. What are you here for?"

"I came to get some new clothes."

"Oh, aren't you a civilian though? Dressing like a shinobi might not be a good idea if you are."

"I am a civilian now, but I'm graduating from the Academy next year."

The girl smiled. "Interesting. I'm graduating from the Academy this year, so I'll be one year your senior."

Naruto frowned. "Then I'll just be better than you."

The girls smile grew dark before she hit him on the head. "DREAM ON BRAT!"

Naruto struggled to stand before smiling at her again. "What's your name?

"Tenten, what about you?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, the man who's gonna become Hokage, believe it!"

Tenten giggled at the eleven year olds cuteness. He was a troublemaker, she could see it in him, but she also could see his potential. It was great, above average; he just needed to be sculpted in the right way.

"Well anyways follow me to the clothing section."

She led him over to the abundant shinobi clothing area. All of it was in top condition, and it surprised him, he had never seen clothing so well taken care of before. It was, if nothing else, impressive.

Tenten then gave him a wad of clothes.

"Try those on, I'll tell you what I think."

After much trial and error Naruto and Tenten came to a style that they both liked. Naruto wore black shinobi pants that ended at the standard shinobi sandals. Dark orange bandages were wrapped around his right arm, and he wore a dark orange shirt. Over all of this he wore a black, unzipped coat with dark orange trim. She had tried to get him to ditch the orange, but he refused, saying he would rather die than go without it. For some reason, she believed him.

"Better, anything else?"

"Yeah, could I get about 100 kunai, 150 shuriken, some training weights, a sealing scroll, smoke bombs, ninja wire, and some explosive tags?"

"Sure," Tenten cheerily responded.

She quickly grabbed the items before putting them on the counter and counting up the cost of Naruto's items.

"All-in-all this will cost… 15000 yen."

Naruto groaned. That was the exact amount Sarutobi had given him, and he had wanted to save the majority of it. However, apparently now he could not. He had to get better; he wasn't good enough to be a ninja as it was right now. Getting better could save his life in the future.

"Here you go."

Naruto smiled and grabbed the items. He could barely carry everything, including the books he still had from the library. He would manage though. He didn't want to seem weak in front of his first friend; well he would consider her to be a friend. He smiled at Tenten before rushing off yelling a quick, "Bye!" over his shoulder.

Tenten smiled and waved at the eleven year old. She couldn't wait until he became a ninja.

XxX

Naruto had briefly stopped at his house to get everything settled in. He had only staid long enough to put down the things he wasn't going to use before he rushed off to one of the villages training grounds, weights on his legs and arms of course. He actually didn't know of many, only training ground 42 and training ground 30. He knew there were more, but he had never found them.

He decided to take training ground 42 as it was closer to the village, surprisingly as it had the higher number. He had quickly settled down. It was still early in the day, and he had enough time to train. As of now he was reading the basics on throwing kunai and shuriken. He had to slap his forehead at how simple it was. All this time he had been gruffly throwing the kunai, but he was supposed to let it flow with a flick of his wrist. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed that.

He grabbed the 20 shuriken and kunai he had brought with him, ten of each, before looking at the tree that stood in front of him. He smiled at it, before realizing something. He needed targets. He frowned at that, there was no way for him to actually make any. He just had to shrug it off. He'd get something next time.

He took all the shuriken, five in each hand, before launching them the way the book told him to. While it wasn't as good as he had hoped he had hit more than his usual three out of then. He had actually hit five.

"YATA! This is great! By the end of the day I'll be able to hit all of the shuriken and kunai!"

And so began Naruto's first day of self-preservation training.

XxX

Naruto awoke with a groan the next day. He had stayed up late last night training hard. While he hadn't been able to hit all of the shuriken he had improved, as he had with the kunai. He had read up on politics, which bored him to no end, and on chakra theory and how to improve your chakra control. He had even learned why his Bunshin (Clone Technique) was so bad. He had too much chakra and not enough control. He had begun to practice that, however spinning a leaf on his hand, as was the first step to basic chakra control, had been unsuccessful so far. Lastly, he had found a scroll that actually suited him with taijutsu. While he usually just fought like a brawler, this taijutsu was useful, as it felt comfortable when he practiced and it was all about lethal strikes. It was a martial art called Krav Maga. All-in-all his training had been going good so far, with little low moments.

Naruto quickly threw on his brand new clothes. He wouldn't wear the old ones anymore or more like he couldn't as they were torn to shreds. These were the only clothes he had, and he planned to take care of them. He went into the bathroom and quickly got ready before rushing out into the kitchen. He didn't know how to cook, he realized as he walked in the kitchen.

He would have to fix that soon. He had also learned that eating food healthily helped you get taller, and since he was short for his age, he would start to eat right. He hated being teased about his height and planned to fix it.

He just grabbed some bread and stuffed it in his mouth. He didn't have enough time to have ramen today, which truly saddened him. After all, ramen, in his opinion, was the food of the Gods.

He ran, or more like fast walked as the weights were heavy, down the street, ignoring the glares adults sent his way. He was happy, ecstatic even, and nothing would bring him down. Why, you may ask? Because now he could rub everything he learned in that Uchiha's face.

To be honest Naruto didn't hate Sasuke. In fact, he wanted to be friends with the boy, as they both knew the curse of loneliness, although Sasuke had once had parents. However, since they died Naruto felt like he should be his friend, not only so they could support each other, but because Sasuke reminded Naruto of himself. Naruto wanted to remove that look of darkness and sadness in his eyes.

Naruto ran into the huge building, past the secretary. The Academy was quite large and was comprised of several buildings which were erected over time. The building could be identified by the tree in front of it which has a swing on it and more so, by the giant sign with the kanji for, 'Fire,' on it.

Naruto walked into his classroom, smiling at the teacher. He was earlier than usual, which surprised Iruka, the teacher, greatly. Naruto usually came in late, to catch everyone's attention.

The classrooms were large and had high ceilings. In front of the blackboard in the front of the room was a podium, situated far from the students' desks and put in a position where the teacher could view everyone at once.

Iruka Umino was a man of average height and build. He had brown hair that he kept in a ponytail, dark eyes and a scar that ran across the bridge of his nose. He wore the standard Konoha shinobi outfit complete with a forehead protector, sandals, and flak jacket.

"Why are you here so early Naruto?"

"I just felt like it," Naruto said, smiling.

He quickly walked to the back of the class. Only three other people were here, Mizuki, Sasuke Uchiha, or as Naruto had dubbed him, teme, and Hinata Hyuga. Mizuki had shoulder-length, white hair that had a slight tint of blue to it and green eyes. He wore the standard attire of a Konoha-nin, including the flak jacket and forehead protector, which was worn like a bandanna.

Hinata had dark blue hair and fair skin. She had the customary white eyes of her clan, the Hyuga clan, which had a tinge of lavender in them. Her bluish-black hair, with the blue being an undertone, was in a short, leveled hime-cut style just above her forehead, with chin-length strands framing her face. She wore a cream-colored hooded-jacket with a fire symbol on the upper right and left sleeves and fur around the cuffs and hem, with navy blue pants.

Sasuke was a fair-skinned ninja who had onyx eyes and black chin-length hair. His hair was spiky in the back with bangs. The bangs roughly framed his face. He wore the traditional Uchiha clothing: a navy blue, short-sleeved shirt with a high collar and the Uchiha crest on the back and white arm warmers, along with white shorts.

Naruto took out the one book he had brought with him to school as he waited for everyone to trickle in the class. It was a book on fuinjutsu, the only book he hadn't been able to get to when he trained yesterday. As he began reading about it he smiled. The book, 'The Art of Sealing,' written by this guy named Jiraiya, had a warning on the first page. It said, "You must have perfect handwriting to use fuinjutsu!" in all capital letters. This was what made Naruto smile. He had perfect handwriting, Hiruzen had told him so, as did Iruka. It was surprising considering the fact that he didn't like to write unless it helped him fight.

That's what made fuinjutsu perfect for him.

He hated writing, but he loved fighting. Fuinjutsu allowed you to write and use that writing in battle for unlimited affects. It gave a prankster like Naruto many ideas. All he had to do was learn it. He continued to read, until Iruka had called his name. Class had started, even though it felt like five minutes to him, when it really had been an hour.

"Naruto, class is starting, please put the book away…wait."

The entire class stared at him as if he had grown a second head.

"What?"

"YOU'RE READING!" they hollered at the blonde.

Naruto blushed, slightly embarrassed at the fact they thought he disliked reading. It wasn't false, but he could handle it when necessary.

"I don't like reading, but I admit it can be helpful," he mumbled. This caused the entire class to stare at him with a questioning gaze before looking at Iruka, who began teaching.

XxX

Naruto was bored out of his mind at the moment. Iruka was teaching the history of Konoha, and while Naruto liked this part of the day the best, at least the part when they were inside the classroom, however, he had promised the Hokage that he would be better than all of the previous Hokages, and doing that meant knowing your history.

This surprised the person who sat next to him, Shikamaru Nara. The boy had a surprised expression; however it was usually one of laziness or irritation. He had shoulder-length black hair tied in a spiky ponytail and narrow brown eyes. He wore a simple pair of silver hoop earrings. He wore a green lined mesh T-shirt under a short sleeved gray jacket with green edges, adorned on both the sleeves and the back was a circle with a line through it. He completed his clothing style with brown pants and blue shinobi sandals.

"You're actually paying attention Naruto?"

Naruto looked at Shikamaru, a bored expression on his face.

"Unfortunately."

"Troublesome," Shikamaru said, however Iruka noticed their conversation and yelled at them.

"Naruto Uzumaki, Shikamaru Nara, stop talking!"

The two were laughed at by the rest of the class, but they just shrugged it off. However, Iruka wasn't done with them.

"Shikamaru, who did the first Hokage battle after the creation of the village?"

It was something Iruka did often. If he ever caught you not paying attention he would ask you a question on the topic, to make sure that the embarrassment would make you learn more as you didn't want to look like a fool. It worked, on almost everyone, however three boys, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji just didn't care.

"Madara Uchiha," Shikamaru responded in a bored tone.

Iruka just frowned. The boy wasn't wrong, but such lack of enthusiasm wasn't good for a ninja. However, the boy was a Nara, so it was expected of them to be lazy, the entire clan, at least the males, were.

However, Iruka still had to peg Naruto.

"Naruto, who was Madara Uchiha?"

Iruka knew he had Naruto. The boy never truly listened, but something was off about today. If he could get him this time Naruto may actually start trying in school. He wasn't expecting the answer Naruto gave.

"Madara Uchiha was a legendary shinobi and a former leader of the Uchiha clan. After allying with his rival, Hashirama Senju, also known as the first Hokage, their two clans created Konohagakure to achieve peace in the world. He eventually came to an impasse with Hasirama and defected from the village. However, he came back with the Kyuubi no Yoko to battle Hashirama for the position of Hokage. He lost, and died in the battle."

The entire class froze at the answer. Naruto answered a question…correctly. NARUTO! The dead-last, the loser, the orphan, the freak. He answered a question correctly when he rarely paid any attention in class.

"C-correct," Iruka said, stumbling over his words.

He turned and continued to teach, although he promised that he had to keep a closer eye on Naruto from here on out.

XxX

It was time for lunch, and Naruto had decided to go up to the roof to eat. He had brought a small bento that he bought early yesterday for himself to eat. As he sat down on a nearby table he looked around. He began to eat before he heard a shout. His head snapped up and he saw some bullies picking on the Hyuga in his class, not that he knew that, to him she was just some girl. The bullies were in the grade above his. He growled when he saw that. Who did they think they were? They didn't have the right to bully her.

He marched over there and shouted, "Hey leave her alone!" The bullies turned and glared at Naruto before breaking out into raucous laughter.

"You think you can hurt us, dead-last?"

Naruto growled. "Just leave her alone."

The bullies smiled.

"HOW ABOUT NO!"

The three bullies charged, all lifting their fists to punch Naruto. However, Naruto dodged the first one before punching him in the gut. He didn't turn fast enough however, and was hit from behind by another one. He turned, growling before jumping in the air. He came in with a flying side kick that landed straight in one of the boys' chest, sending him to the ground groaning.

He still had two more to deal with however, as they began to use combination attacks against him.

'_These guys fight well together_,' Naruto thought, however he wasn't the only one paying attention to the fight.

'_Amazing_,' thought Hinata.

'_The dobe can fight this well? Maybe he isn't as bad as I thought._' Sasuke thought, a quick smirk gracing his face.

One boy came in alone, getting bold at them keeping Naruto on the ropes. He threw a straight punch, preparing to knock Naruto's block off. However, Naruto jumped backwards, forcing the boy to hyperextend his elbow.

The boy hissed in pain and dropped to the ground; however Naruto came in with a swift low kick to the boys' side and left him groaning on the ground. However, he was hit from behind by the last boy, also the most polished taijutsu fighter among them.

"What's your name kid?" the boy asked, slightly interested at the so-called dead-last that took down two of his friends.

"Naruto Uzumaki, what about you?"

"Raylin Shuga, nice to meet you," the boy said before charging.

During this charge Naruto took in Raylin's appearance. He wore a dark blue shirt, with a black vest over it. He had brown eyes and black hair, with bangs that fell over his eyebrows. He wore dark brown pants, with shinobi sandals on his feet.

Raylin threw a roundhouse kick at Naruto's face; however the small boy ducked under the kick, only to be caught by a hook kick to the face that sent him tumbling.

'_I've heard of this style. He uses Karate, and that technique. That was a roundhouse kick hook kick combination, he's good_.'

Raylin charged again, bringing his fist up to guard his face. Naruto lifted his leg, preparing to lash out with a side kick; however the boy grabbed Naruto's leg and held it in place. He then swung it to the side, sending Naruto off balance. As the blonde fell Raylin smashed a knee into his forehead, drawing blood.

Naruto spat some blood out of his mouth, trying to look like he was fine, but truly his head was spinning. This guy hit hard, very hard. He had never been hit this hard, even by the villagers that tended to beat him.

Naruto looked up to see a fist coming towards his face, however he ducked, albeit it barely. He saw an opening, but he knew he would have to capitalize on it immediately to get passed the older boys defense. He swung up for an elbow smash towards Raylin's head, however the older boy ducked. Naruto smiled at seeing that and brought his elbow down into the back of Raylin's head. As the boy stumbled Naruto brought his knee into Raylin's face, knocking the boy out.

"Take that," he shouted, smiling as Raylin fell to the ground.

Again he felt the eyes of many people on him. It was unnerving. While he liked attention they were staring at him as if he was a completely different person. He turned his face down and walked back over to where Hinata was.

"Are you okay?"

"Y-y-yes," the girl responded shyly.

Naruto then looked at her intently, causing her already rosy cheeks to burn.

"You're in my class right?"

"Y-y-y-yes, I'm Hinata Hyuga," the girl said, still a little shy around the blonde.

"Nice to meet you Hinata-san. I'm Naruto Uzumaki, believe it!"

Naruto then frowned at the girl. "You know, you shouldn't let those guys pick on you."

The girl looked saddened at that. "B-b-but there s-s-so b-big, how am I s-s-supposed to fight against that?"

Naruto smiled. "By getting stronger! I'll help you too."

The girl smiled and nodded timidly.

"Well then, follow me Hinata-chan, you have made yourself a friend today, a friend who will one day become the Hokage."

The girl smiled. She liked this boy. He was nice and didn't look down on her for being timid. She truly hoped she could be his friend.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Copy Ninja and The Snake Mistress**

Naruto groaned as he slammed his fist into the log again. It was part of his morning workout, which consisted of 300 pushups, 200 punches on the tree with each arm, 200 kicks on the tree with each leg, and 50 laps around the entire training area. It was insane quite honestly, especially because he wore weights throughout the entirety of the practice. By the end of the workout he was dead tired.

To rest his body, not his mind, he studied chakra theory, politics, and fuinjutsu afterward. The only time he wasn't bored during this period was when he studied fuinjutsu, however that was because he was strangely attracted to it, as if its topics were hypnotizing. While it didn't scare him, it actually gave him a strange comforting feeling, although a strange feeling of hatred arose whenever he studied it, he wasn't sure what it meant either.

The last part of the day was probably the most hectic. He practiced his taijutsu style, worked on improving his chakra control, trained on his kunai and shuriken accuracy, and practiced his fuinjutsu. While fuinjutsu was much easier it was also more complicated, and while it wasn't hard, it took the most time, not including chakra control, as he had to make sure every stroke was perfect. Jiraiya, the writer of the book he was reading, hadn't gone into detail about what happened when a fuinjutsu was improperly, or sloppily, written but he had said that it was something no one, not even the Shinigami himself, deserved to encounter.

However, his training and academic aspects of life were not the only things that had improved. His relationship with Hinata had sky-rocketed. While he hadn't been over to her house he had learned more about her and her clan. To be honest he liked her, but disliked the policies of her clan. While he didn't know much about it, she had told him there was a wedge between the main and branch families, although he did not know what caused it or what that wedge was. He had taken to calling her Hina-chan now, which made her blush every time he did so. She stilled called him Naruto-kun, but he wasn't opposed to the name, he rather liked it. She was his second friend, first in his age range, anyway.

He also had made friends with Shikamaru and Chouji. Well, friend was a strong word, more like very good colleague. He hung out with them a lot, and had taken to their habit of cloud-watching. It was interesting, seeing how the clouds moved. It was actually a good way of stress relief for him.

However, if anything hadn't changed over the course of a week it was his relationship with his crush, a pink haired girl named Sakura. He had had a crush on her since they were in the third year in the academy, and it wasn't a one week type of crush. No, it was on a deeper level. It was not love, although Naruto, being as dense and unintelligent in the ways of dating as he was, thought it was. He still called her Sakura-chan, much to the girl's dismay, and still asked her out on dates.

Needless to say he was rebuffed every time.

The girl was a die-hard Uchiha fangirl. It was the one thing he didn't like about her. She never noticed him, and even while he had improved and was by no means the idiot he once was she still considered him to be one. Her insulting nickname of Naruto-baka, was still what she called him. He had been told by Chouji and Shikamaru that he should quit while he was ahead, but he just couldn't. She was alluring, and he was a novice to feminine attraction, as Tenten was more like a sister and Hinata was to shy to be anything more than a friend, although he would not deny the Hyuga wasn't ugly.

Sakura had taken to physically rebuffing his dates now. Whenever he asked her out she screamed at him and punched him, hard. It broke a little bit of him every time she did so, but he was never a quitter, and swore that he could change her train of thought about him eventually.

However, Naruto no longer had time to practice. It was time for school, the hell spawn that it was, and he had to go. He had woken up particularly early today to train briefly. He sighed as he looked at the goggles he had begun to wear in public. They Hokage had given them to him when he was still very young, and they had been his only companion through his many years of hardship. They were something of a memento of how is old life was, as it was beginning to change very rapidly.

XxX

Naruto burst into his class, nearly late. Villagers had tried to stop him from reaching the Academy today, forcing him to make an arc around the village to avoid them. He smiled as the bell rang the second he busted in. His devilish luck was still active, and he definitely was making use of it.

"You made it on time Naruto, barely," Iruka said, smiling at the blonde.

Naruto smiled back, although he felt a distinct chill spread through his body as Mizuki, Iruka's helper, nodded at him with a small smile. Something about that man had always set Naruto off, although he took that as a sign that he may rig his grades as the majority of the academy teachers did.

"Take your seat."

Naruto did as told, and sat next to his closest friend, Hinata.

"N-N-Naruto-kun, w-where were you, y-y-you were almost late?" She asked.

Naruto smiled sheepishly at the girl, rubbing the back of his neck. "I ran into some problems on the way here."

"Troublesome," he heard Shikamaru mumble in front of him.

XxX

"Okay kids, time for the taijutsu sparing portion of the day," Mizuki said. "As Parents Day is coming up you all will be sparing with each other, as to get ready to show off everything you have learned we will have you spar each other, to make it more interesting."

Naruto nodded. Today was his chance. His chance to finally beat the Uchiha. For the past week all they had done was spar with Mizuki, but now he was going to be able to spar Sasuke, as long Mizuki called him out to spar Sasuke, he just had to rely on his luck again.

"Okay, as per usual, ladies first. I want Sakura and Hinata to spar."

Naruto frowned as Mizuki called that out. He didn't know who to cheer for. On one hand he had his childhood crush, while on the other he had the person who had become one of his most precious people; it was truly a hard choice. He had no idea which one to pick.

However, it seemed it was not needed as the fight ended relatively quickly. Out of all the girls, Hinata was the best at taijutsu. While it may be she was the only clan girl, who trained, who didn't fast for the Uchiha, or the fact that she was slightly harder on the majority of the girls for hurting Naruto, especially Sakura, it didn't matter. She could undoubtedly beat all of them, even if she was shy.

And so the fights continued, all the girls being pathetic at taijutsu. They had the capability of being good in taijutsu, but it was the fact that, with the exception of Hinata, ALL of the girls in the class were undoubtedly fangirls, which hindered their growth.

"Well that was…great," Mizuki said, forcing out the word great however it only sounded guttural. "Boys next. Kiba and Chouji, you're first."

Chouji had spiky, brown hair, swirl marks on his cheeks, and had a more robust physique. He wore black shorts, a long white scarf, a short-sleeved, green haori over a white shirt with his clan's obligatory kanji for "food" on it, small, hoop earrings, and his legs and forearms were wrapped in bandages.

Kiba had messy brown hair, sharp black eyes with vertical slit-like pupils, pronounced canine teeth, and nails. He also had distinctive red fang markings on his cheeks, as per his clan's rules. He wore dark grayish pants that reached his calves and a grey, hooded fur-lined coat, with the hood usually placed on his head, over an apparent plate of armor and fishnet undershirt.

"Sensei," Kiba began, "can we use chakra in our fight?"

Mizuki actually took time to think this over. The girls didn't use it, but then again the girls didn't have enough experience to use it as the majority never trained. The boys however, they trained. And they all had clans that helped them train; therefore it would not be to dangerous.

"I will allow it, however if I deem it to dangerous I will stop the match."

Kiba nodded and glared at Chouji who was eating a bag of chips. Kiba growled. "Begin."

Kiba's body was enveloped by a large cloud of chakra and he crouched on the ground, as if he were a canine. His teeth elongated even further, his fingers and toenails grew to claw-like length, and his eyes became wilder with his slit-like pupils thinning.

A dog barked behind Kiba. It was a small puppy with white fur and resembled a Great Pyrenees. Its eyes were squinted, appearing closed, and he had a dark brown nose, as well as dark brown patches on his ears and a dark outline around his mouth.

"Don't worry Akamaru. This will be over quickly."

Kiba charged Chouji, his claws raised. Chouji ducked under the swipe, barely dodging it, before stumbling backwards.

"W-wait Kiba, there is no need for violence."

"Yes there is Chouji!"

Kiba charged again, however this time Chouji was prepared. His arm began to enlarge, growing to gargantuan sizes.

"Bubun Baika no Jutsu (Partial Multi-Size Technique)!"

Kiba dodged the overgrown fist partially, only allowing it to clip his side. However, the force of the blow was great and sent him to the ground. Chouji looked hesitant but still charged the downed Kiba. Kiba looked up, determination in his eyes, before he raised his claws again. He charged Chouji in response, before lashing out with his claws. He was faster than Chouji and because of that, when Chouji dodged his shirt had two diagonal slash marks on it. Chouji fell backwards as Kiba rushed in and put his claws to his neck.

"Yield," Kiba said.

Chouji nodded and looked at Mizuki. "I-I yield."

Mizuki nodded. "Kiba wins."

Chouji walked away from the circle looking down in shame, while Kiba sauntered off cockily.

"It's okay Chouji, you'll get him next time," Naruto said patting his friend on the back.

"Y-y-you did g-g-great out t-t-there C-Chouji-san," Hinata said, hiding behind Naruto slightly.

"Its fine Chouji, winning is too troublesome."

Chouji nodded as his friends comforted him. It made him feel better about the loss. Still, next time he would rather win.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki," Mizuki said with a calm face, however inside he was grinning like a madman.

'_Show him up Uchiha_,' Mizuki thought his thoughts filled with unreasonable hatred.

Sasuke walked into the circle as did Naruto. They glared at each other, their dislike for the other, or anger at the other for showing them up all the time, being revealed.

"Prepare to lose, Sasuke," Naruto said, crouching into his fighting stance.

"Hn. Dobe," Sasuke responded also falling into his own fighting stance.

"Begin!" Mizuki ordered.

Naruto rushed Sasuke immediately, his punch ready to be thrown. However, Sasuke swatted his fist to the side and tried to punch him in the gut. Naruto grabbed his fist and pulled Sasuke in for a knee to the stomach, which was blocked by Sasuke's free hand. The two growled at each other before breaking apart to gain more clarity.

That moment quickly ended as Naruto rushed forward, his hand clearly wanting to strike the Uchiha in the chest. Sasuke twirled to the side, getting behind Naruto and attempting to lash out with a spinning hook kick, however Naruto turned in time and caught the kick with both of his hands, although it hurt.

Naruto growled. He was on the back foot. While after only a week of seriously training he knew he wouldn't be on Sasuke's level he thought he would be doing better than this. The Uchiha was toying with him to try and make him look like a fool. While it wasn't exactly working as he had hoped, in fact it was helping Naruto as a few of the girls were wondering when he got that good, it was still showing the fact that Sasuke was a great fighter, as Naruto had defeated some of the more capable boys in the class before.

Sasuke jumped and span in midair, twirling his caught leg around in Naruto's grasp as he came in with a sweeping kick to the head. Both of Naruto's hands were preoccupied, and he was to close to dodge. Naruto was hit straight in the face, spitting out blood, and making him stumble. He got his equilibrium back and glared at Sasuke.

"Nice one teme, let's see if you can stop this!"

Naruto charged Sasuke, cocking both of his fists back. Sasuke dodged both strikes, however Naruto wanted this. He clasped his hands on the back of the Uchiha's neck and brought him down into his knee, snapping Sasuke's head back, and forcing blood from his nose.

Sasuke stumbled and Naruto took advantage of it. Naruto grabbed his chin and pushed back on it, forcing Sasuke to the ground, however the young Uchiha span and kicked Naruto in the side, forcing him off of him. Naruto stood as Sasuke did, both looking at each other with in a new light.

'_Sasuke isn't invincible,_' Naruto thought. While he didn't think he was, compared to all the other Academy students Sasuke seemed invincible.

'_The dobe is good! You've earned a bit of my respect Naruto_,' Sasuke thought, before he crouched preparing to strike.

However, they were not the only two looking at this battle.

"These two kids are amazing," Mizuki said, looking at them in awe. "When I was an Academy student I wasn't near this level."

"How is Naruto-baka keeping up with my Sasuke-kun," Sakura screeched.

Sakura had bright pink hair, large green eyes, and fair skin. She had a rather large forehead and wore bags to cover it, which helped. She wore a red qipao dress with white circular designs, with short sleeves, with a zipper, and tight dark green shorts.

"What do you mean your Sasuke-kun Billboard Brow," said a blonde haired girl.

The girl was fair-skinned, and average in height with blue eyes. She had long, blonde, waist-length hair, which was worn in a high-ponytail with bangs covering the right side of her face. She wore a pair of small silver hoop-earrings and purple, fairly revealing clothing. She wore a short purple vest like blouse with a raised collar, a purple apron skirt that was cut off at the sides and bandages on her stomach and legs. She also wore purple and white elbow warmers.

"You heard me Ino-pig!" Sakura shouted back at the girl.

The two butted heads before everyone muted them out.

XxX

"Hokage-sama, you want us to train the blonde," a woman said.

The woman had light brown, pupil-less eyes, and violet hair, which was styled in a short, spiky, fanned-ponytail. She wore a tan overcoat with a purple in-seam, which had a pocket on both sides, and complete with a fitted mesh body suit that stretches from her neck down to her thighs. She wore a dark orange mini-skirt as well as a Konoha forehead protector, a small pendant that looked like a snake fang on a thick cord rather than a chain to prevent it from being easily torn off in combat, a wrist watch, and pale grey shin guards. She wore a dark blue belt around her waist that connects to her skirt that has an appendage-like sash.

"Yes, he has much potential. Possibly more than any of the other prospects, with his only competitor being Uchiha Sasuke."

"Hokage-sama," said a man. "While I am all for teaching the boy-" '_Especially as he is my sensei's son_.' "Wouldn't the counsel get angry as they want me to train the Uchiha."

The man was fit and relatively tall, with spiky silver hair and dark-colored eyes. He wore a blue face mask that covered his from his chin up to the bright of his nose. He wore the standard attire for a Jonin with short metal-plated gloves. He wore his forehead protector on a simple blue band that was titled to the left to cover his left eye. He also wore a chain necklace.

"That is when it is time for them to graduate. Besides, the boy is already spoiled, he doesn't need private tutoring. Also, he's the top of the class."

"But, Hokage-sama, the blonde seems to be doing well without any help," the woman said.

"Anko, you see how many holes the blonde, and the Uchiha, have in their stances. I'm specifically requesting you two as you can help the blonde fix his mistakes. However, Sasuke-kun will be going to Kakashi anyway as he is the only one who can teach him about the Sharingan, therefore there is no reason for me to rush things with the boy, especially as he hasn't even activated his Sharingan."

Anko, the female ninja, nodded. She may not like it, but she was a ninja, and ninja's were supposed to follow orders. Kakashi on the other hand, the male ninja, was jumping for joy…mentally of course. He got to train his sensei's son. It would be great, for him, Naruto on the other hand; he may not like Kakashi's training from slacker hell.

That's why he had Anko.

XxX

Naruto blocked Sasuke's punch before attempting to slam his elbow into Sasuke's face. However, the raven haired boy avoided the blow and lashed out with a pushing front kick in attempt to push Naruto out of the circle. Naruto latched onto his leg as he was hit in the chest, dragging Sasuke along with him.

"Break it up!" Mizuki ordered.

The two let go of each other, surprise written on both of their faces.

"There was no winner, it's a draw."

While the girls in the class seemed to have problems with this, the boys were happy. Now Sasuke may not act like a stuck up asshole to everyone.

"Tch," Sasuke mumbled before stuffing his hands in his pockets and walking away.

Or not.

XxX

It had been five hours since today's class had ended, and Naruto was exhausted. He was still punching the tree, trying to finish up his morning workout even thought it was well past the time he should have finished it. He had already studied fuinjutsu and politics, and practiced his chakra control. As of now, all he wanted to do was sleep, but he had to finish his physical exercises first.

He continued until he heard two voices behind him.

"Hey gaki, you okay?"

"Looks like he's gonna pass out."

He turned to see Anko walking up to him, a smile on her attractive features, and Kakashi walking up behind her.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked, dropping into his fighting stance.

"Woah, Woah, come down gaki, we're here because we want to help you."

Naruto looked at Anko strangely.

"I'm Anko, and the scarecrow behind me is Kakashi, we want to train you. We saw you training for the past couple of days, and you pushed hard. You have determination and potential. I wouldn't mind training a brat with a fire like you have, and neither would Kakashi."

Naruto looked at them pointedly. He highly doubted they just randomly saw him and decided to train him, but who was he to refuse? They were part of the village, he could tell from their headbands, and they were offering to train him. It would be idiotic not to accept.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the man who's gonna become Hokage, BELIEVE IT!"

* * *

Hey guys it's Kuma Akuma. FIRST AUTHOR'S NOTE FOR THIS STORY. Anyway, I want to thank all of you who reviewed, as it really made me want to do this chapter. Also, if you want, for all you high achievers out there, you can check my profile if you want to send in OCs. Anyways. The way Naruto met Kakashi and Anko may not be what you guys wanted, but I had already planned it out beforehand, and this was the way that I wanted to do it. It isn't as great as it could be, but hey I was pressed for time here. Anyways, Sasuke isn't as much of an asshole...for now. Also, I have a question. If you guys have a question do you want me to add it in before the chapter or do you want me to just PM you the answers. I know either or could annoy some people, so please give me answers. And send in OCs, as they will be used in this story often as I will diverge from Naruto canon. Well, that's it, see you guys later and avoid the Earl.


	3. Chapter 3

**Coduss: **This is pure Naru/Hina, no harems. I am personally not a fan of those, the story has to be amazing for me to even read them.

**I own Nothing! What! Impossible! But worry not, I have a plan, AHAHAHAH!**

**A Difference Between Lazy and Hell! Improvement does not go unnoticed.**

Naruto groaned as Kakashi told him to run another lap while he wasn't even looking at him. The man was not even paying attention to Naruto or his training. He was more into his smut, which Naruto believed was called Icha-Icha. From what Naruto could deduce from the cover it was a book about something that he had not learned in class yet. He would have to check up human biology with the old man, as he saw that the man and woman on the cover seemed to be doing weird things and wearing very revealing clothing, and most importantly they were connected at the hip.

However, Naruto had more important things to think on, like what Anko was doing. She had left saying that she was preparing his "Training of Hell," supposedly. He highly doubted it could be training from hell, however from the way Kakashi paled and the way Anko grinned, he was starting to doubt that. No sane person who knew Anko would not blame him.

Naruto continued to run his fiftieth, sixtieth, seventieth lap? Naruto could not remember. He had been running so much his legs burned and he would kill to do anything, ANYTHING, other than what he was doing right now. He looked back at Kakashi, who somehow knew he was finished and waved his hand at Naruto, signalling him to do another lap. Naruto groaned until a kunai flew by his cheek, shallowly cutting it.

However, if he was shocked then he was even more surprised when he felt a rather large, although large didn't even begin to describe it, chest press onto his back and a tongue lick his bloody cheek, which was already healing. He turned to see Anko grinning at him. He shivered. That grin sent shivers down his spine.

"A-Anko-sensei," He asked quite nervous.

"Hey gaki! Time to meet my training from hell, then back to Kakashi and then you get to hit the sack, but until then it's training time, follow me."

Naruto nodded and followed Anko. She headed quite the distance, before she landed upon a gate with a sign on it that said, "Danger! The Forest of Death!" Naruto backed up slightly when he saw it.

"So gaki, first off welcome to my home, or dubbed by us, 'The Forest of Death,' or dubbed by the people who have died in here, 'That Crazy Bitches Home,' their thoughts of course. Now, thus place is just awesome. Despite the dull metallic fence that surrounds it to keep the many dangerous lurking within contained, there is a river in the forest. However, the most important thing is the radius of the forest. It's about ten kilometers. You may ask why this is the most important, well that's because you're going to running it, while dodging attacks from me, and all the giant tigers, leeches, bears and other criters that lurk in this forest, isn't that fun?"

"I can agree to the people that called you 'That Crazy Bitch,'" Naruto mumbled, however Anko heard him.

She drew a kunai and began leaking killing intent. In all reality she was not angry, she knew he was just complaining, but it was to much fun to tease him.

"What was that brat," she whispered lowly.

Naruto backed up slowly, very slowly.

"Nothing, Anko-sensei!" He shouted out.

She smiled. "Good, now get going!"

As soon as Naruto took off Anko was at his heels, purposely going slower than him.

'_He's rather fast for a small little brat_,' She thought as she kicked him into the forest. "Stop trying to cheat gaki!"

"But you didn't even tell me where the entrance was," Naruto grumbled before he lunged to his right.

A giant tiger stood there, saliva dripping from its mouth and fangs and a look of desperation in its eyes.

"Great, a wild, starving, giant tiger. It would be my luck."

He had to roll to the side to dodge some kunai that were thrown at him by Anko before he stood up and sprinted off into the forest, followed by Anko and the tiger. He jumped over a fallen tree branch to see a giant centipede next to it, and from the looks of it just woke up.

'_Shit_!'

The centipede lunged towards Naruto, apparently hungry after it's nap. Naruto rolled into a ball in midair and landed on its back before drawing a kunai. He slammed the kunai into it's back before he jumped over its dead corpse and continued his running. He continued to run before the giant tiger appeared in front of him again and he knew, he just knew that Anko was behind him, preparing kunai. The tiger lunged just as Naruto ducked. The tiger flew over him and Naruto used the kunai he used to kill the centipede and stab it into the tigers gut, causing it to gurgle out blood as it's gut was pierced. Blood flowed from the wound as it did from the tigers mouth. Naruto groaned and left the kunai there, looking at his now bloody clothes.

'_These are my only pair_,' He thought before he used the tigers body to shield himself from a barrage of shuriken and kunai. '_Crazy bitch_.'

Naruto threw the corpse of a tiger away before taking off running again. He had done this for a little over an hour before he was told to stop by Anko.

"Y-y-y-you crazy b-bitch," Naruto said trying to catch his breath.

"Aw, I love you too gaki," she said before she rubbed his cheek with hers affectionately. She then proceeded to grab both of his arms and force him to hang on to a tree.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)," Anko said after she bit her hand, drawing blood, and flowed through the hand seals: Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, and finally, Ram. A small, yet intricate seal appeared on the ground below her hand before a puff of smoke appeared from it. When the smoke cleared there were two snakes where the seal once was.

"You called us, Lady Anko," the snakes asked.

Naruto was immediately fearing for his life. Snakes that could talk. That was not a good sign.

"Yes. Ariko, Manabe, I want you to try and eat that boy over there," she said pointing at Naruto. "If he tries to slack off feel free, otherwise just scare him."

The snakes nodded and coiled around Naruto.

"I want 300 pull-ups brat, GET GOING!"

"These snakes won't eat me, you don't have the guts," Naruto roared back at her.

Anko smiled sadistically while Kakashi appeared next to her.

"Trust me Naruto she does, she has no problem with it."

From the seriousness in Kakashi's tone of voice Naruto got to work. He knew the man was rarely serious, at least he had been told so by Anko during their little death chase. He was mainly a lazy bastard, however he was a strong lazy bastard, although Anko thought it was just a guise.

Naruto however began to pull-ups anyways as the snakes playfully bit the air near his shoes, worrying him greatly. However the entire time he was shouting one thing, "YOU CRAZY BITCH!"

XxX

Hinata Hyuga looked at her father, Hiashi Hyuga, with more than a little surprise in her eyes. Hiashi had long, black hair and featureless white eyes that were very similar to his daughters, Hinata Hyuga. He wore a very traditional, loose fitting robe with a long-sleeved brown haori.

He was usually very stoic and disappointed in Hinata which was why she was surprised. He was actually smiling at her, which was something he rarely did. He had been ready to give up on her and only train her younger sister, who actually showed promise, however she had actually managed to do much better than usual during their spars, well not spars more like one-sided beat downs.

"Hinata, have you been practicing alone," he asked, smiling down at his daughter.

"Yes f-f-father, s-s-s-someone has been h-h-helping m-me," she responded to her father.

Hiashi frowned at this. While he was in no way against a Hyuga helping a Hyuga, as long as they were within their boundaries, the way she said it made him think it was someone who was not in the Hyuga clan. He also knew that few of the Hyuga approved of Hinata. She was to kind for battle and did not like to harm others. She was the perfect image of a regular commoner girl. However, she was the closest thing to royalty in this village, if you didn't count the Senju or even the Uchiha and Uzumaki, however few people knew how important the Uzumaki were to the creation of Konohagakure no Sato. In fact, he didn't know much himself. He only knew what Tsunade had told him from her father, grandfather, and granduncle.

"Well then Hinata," Hiashi began. "I think it is only right for this person to meet me, the father of yourself, and greet them personally." However, Hiashi was thinking on a different basis than what he had said. '_I will allow them to continue to help Hinata as she is growing with their help, however once she has reached her peak I shall cut them off permanently. She does not need to have outside ties, it may effect her in her rule over the Hyuga, if she makes it that is_.'

"Y-yes father."

'_Naruto-kun_,' Hinata thought worriedly.

XxX

Naruto groaned as Kakashi told him to do another lap around the training zone. He had finished his training session with Anko, and he was dead beat tired after that, however Kakashi did not seem to care and continued to push him just as hard, if not harder, with his normal lazy expression. As Naruto finished his lap Kakashi smiled internally.

'_He has the stamina of both Kushina-sensei and Minato-sensei_.'

"Okay, enough of physical training, I want you to read your fuinjutsu and work on that for the last hour of training you have with me before resting. Remember, tomorrow you have our workouts and your own, so get a good nights sleep, bye," Kakashi said before he disappeared in a Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique) to leave the area.

'_I can't get a good nights rest as it's around what, ten o'clock. You and Anko kept me up all day. And I really wanna learn that jutsu_.' Naruto thought before he sat down and began to read.

XxX

Naruto groaned as he slammed his head down on the desk. He was back at the Academy, and boy was he tired. Not only had he staid up past ten to read his fuinjutsu book, but he also had to wash his clothes, which took a long time. He didn't actually get to sleep until 12. Not to mention he had to wake up at like six to do his morning workout before coming here. All-in-all, he was exhausted and did not want to go to school today. However, he knew he had to. Future Hokages should not complain after all.

He groaned again as Iruka began to lecture him about staying up to late. He was not really paying attention, just watching the mans mouth move. Surprisingly he could read his lips, however what he was saying annoyed Naruto so he just dozed off until Iruka asked Naruto if he understood.

"Yeah yeah Iruka-sensei," Naruto responded in a tired and nonchalant manner that made it obvious that he hadn't listened to a single thing the man had said.

Iruka frowned but realized there was nothing he could do. You can't change the past after all. If you could he would have already done so.

Naruto kept on feeling sleepy that entire class until Hinata tapped him on the shoulder.

"Naruto-kun," she said looking at him shyly, but intently.

"Yeah, Hina-chan?" he responded.

"M-m-my father wants t-t-to meet you," she whispered.

That took Naruto a while to process. Her father, the head of the Hyuga clan, which could be considered royalty in the village, wanted to see what people like them would consider orphan trash. It was undoubtedly surprising, and any regular orphan would cheer at the chance to do so, however Naruto was no regular orphan. He knew there were strings attached and knew that he would have to act professional around this clan head to look like a good influence on Hinata. However, just because he wanted to make a good impression of himself didn't mean he could not get under his skin...to much.

Naruto was just laughing at all the possibilities. Maybe it was time to restart his pranking career? He decided not to, prank the Hyuga's anyway. That would not be good, to have people that could see through walls and had 360 degree vision trying to kill him. He would not last the night. At least, not yet, but he would get strong enough so he could do just that.

Naruto turned back to Hinata, his trademark grin on his face as he looked at her. "Sure, Hina-chan."

"Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuga, stop talking!" Iruka roared glaring at them.

"I'll take the punishment for both Hina-chan and myself, Iruka-sensei," Naruto said.

Iruka blinked at that. He didn't know if he could allow it. On one hand, if he did and didn't let other kids do it it would be a blatant act of favoritism, however if he didn't he could get in trouble with the Hyuga's something he really did not want. He sighed.

"Fine."

As Iruka said this multiple thoughts were going through the students heads.

'_He's allowing this? Interesting, the dobe seems to surprise me every time. He would be useful in killing my brother. At least, to take on his grunts while I actually take him on_,' Sasuke thought.

'_Naruto-baka is just trying to show off to make himself look cooler than Sasuke-kun to win my favor, no way does he truly care about Hinata_,' Sakura thought.

'_Yeah, you're right_,' Inner Sakura, Sakura's inner personality, thought. _  
_

'_Naruto? Doing something like this? That's_ _different_,' Ino thought.

'_Troublesome blonde_,' Shikamaru thought as he glared at Naruto.

XxX

Naruto walked into the Higarashi Shinobi Shop looking quiet glum.

"Something wrong Naruto-kun," Tenten asked as she walked up to him.

"Yeah, one of my friends said her father wants to meet me. Only problem is that he is that head of the Hyuga Clan. What do I do or wear?"

"I can help you with that kid," said a man as he walked up to Naruto and Tenten.

The man wore a black shirt with short sleeves that had the picture of a shuriken on it. His legs were covered by dark brown pants that hard intricate black flames licking the bottom of them and he wore brown shoes. On his arms were two bracers that had seals on them that Naruto could tell meant 'shuriken,' from his extensive study of fuinjutsu. His eyes were the same color as Tenten's, which were brown, and had dark brown eyes like Tenten.

"Hey dad," Tenten said.

"That's your father," Naruto shouted out, quiet surprised at the fact.

the man laughed a deep, gravelly laugh. "Yep, I'm Stijn Higarashi, this dandelions father. Now, I heard you could use some-" he was cut off by Tenten who had slammed her fist into his gut.

"I'm not a dandelion," she huffed and walked away.

Naruto just sweat-dropped at the scene.

"But Ten-chan."

"Shut up baka!"

Stijn looked down, glum. "So cruel," he mumbled.

Naruto tapped his shoulder, still rather confused.

"Mr. Higarashi," he asked.

Stijn snapped upwards, his smile back on his face. "Call me Stijn kid. Now you said you were meeting the Hyuga tonight right," he asked.

Naruto nodded.

"I have just the thing, follow me," Stijn said leading Naruto into the civilian section of the store. He told Naruto to wait there and not long after came back with, to put simply, an amazing peace of work.

It was a brown shirt long-sleeved shirt with the right sleeve being black instead of brown. There were black pants with the customary swirls that ninja wore on their flak jackets at the bottom, only instead of red they were white. There was a black, with silver lining, belt that was wrapped around the pants and over the entire outfit there was a burnt orange-brown kimono draped over the entire outfit. The kimono had black flames licking the bottom of it as well.

"This was my first peace of work. It was done by a friend that died long ago, around 11 years ago. It was for his child when he grew older, but the child, from what I know of anyway, is not with the living anymore. So I'll give it to you, free of charge," Stijn said.

Naruto was shocked to say the least. This clothing was amazing, and way to expensive for his poor self to buy with the money he got from the old man. To get it for free, was a great deal, however it felt wrong in a way. It was some families heirloom.

"Shouldn't you give it to the family? And for free? This is an amazing peace of work, I don't know if I can accept this."

Stijn laughed. "Of course you can, just take it. And besides all of the immediate family is dead, and no one knows where the other relatives are, so I may as well give it to you. And of course it's free. You remind me of the guy who ordered it."

"Thanks Stijn-san," Naruto said grabbing the outfit and running off.

Stijn smiled after the boy. '_It was your father who ordered it gaki, anybody with half a brain could see the resemblance between you two, although your personality is a lot like Kushina. But I digress. Still, thanks for telling me yesterday Kakashi. It's nice seeing the legacy carried on_.'

* * *

Hey guys it's Kuma Akuma. Bet you gets weren't expecting that. Anyways, start sending in OCs, I will be using them. Now, a dinner with the Hyuga's! After only a week of knowing Hinata. Damn Naruto, your a faster worker. Just kidding! And you now know why Anko and Kakashi are assholes. They were born that way. Well, that's it. See you guys later and avoid the Earl.


	4. Chapter 4

**A Dinner with the Hyuga's! First Jutsu!**

Naruto walked up to the Hyuga complex with little timidity in his step. However his confidence hid his truly nervous demeanor. Multiple endings of this dinner played throughout his mind, and from after Kakashi and Anko teasing him about it he was even more nervous than he would have been usually.

Naruto strode up to the gates of the complex to meet the glaring guards anyway, forcing his fears down, although they rose to the surface rather quickly. However, once he reached the massive gates he was shocked. They were large stone walls that extended way above his head with green tile as the roof. It was in a square shape that reached around for a long while. There were two giant wooden doors with the yin-yang symbol painted on it. Finally, in front of the gate were two guards with the standard robes of the Hyuga clan with their customary eyes.

"Can we help you," the taller one said. His face contorted into something align with hatred for a moment but he quickly hid it, so fast that Naruto did not notice it.

"Um, yes. My friend, Hinata Hyuga, said her father, Hiashi Hyuga, wanted to meet me and have dinner with me," Naruto said. He was going to call Hinata Hina-chan, but he thought better of it when he realized that that may tarnish Hinata's image.

The shorter one frowned at this. He looked at the taller one who nodded and opened the gates. The shorter one's frown deepened before he gave a quick glare at Naruto, which did not go unnoticed by the boy.

'_They hate me too_,' Naruto thought while walking inside the building quietly.

However, his silence was soon broken as he had to gasp at the beauty of the complex. There were wooden halls in two directions, to the left and to the right of him, and in front of him there were wooden stairs that led to a grassy training field. Near the training field there was a garden which a woman was tending to. If you looked up you could see the night sky which was glowing with stars. There were paper doors that slid open every time a member of the clan either went in or out to do something. It was absolutely amazing. Naruto was not expecting it.

However, he felt a small dose of killing intent, coming from behind him, and walked on quickly, trying to act casual, although it was obviously not working. He continued to walk in a random direction, hoping that he would see Hinata and she would lead him to her father; however as luck would have it he did not find her.

Instead he found a boy that looked to be a year older than him. The boy had long, dark brown hair that reached the middle of his back and was tied back a few inches above the end in a loose ponytail. His forehead was covered with bandages. He wore a khaki shirt, under which he wore a dull blue shirt with mesh armor underneath it, dark brown shorts, and blue shinobi sandals. He had bandages wrapped around his right arm, and his right leg.

"Who are you," the boy asked snugly, as if he was looking down on a Naruto.

Naruto frowned at the boy's tone of voice but answered anyway. "Naruto Uzumaki."

The boy frowned at that. He had heard that his uncle wanted to see the boy. He had found him and while he did not want the pathetic boy to see his cursed uncle he had no choice. Otherwise the wretched seal would activate and that may kill him, or worse, destroy his mind.

So with that in mind he said, "Follow me," and led him to the room that Hiashi and Hinata were residing in.

"Thank you," Naruto said gruffly. "May I ask what your name is?"

"Neji Hyuga," the boy said before turning on his foot and walking away.

"Well that was rude," Naruto mumbled before he took a deep breath and opened the door that lead to Hiashi and Hinata.

The second he did so he saw Hinata who was looking up at him. She smiled shyly and whispered out a, "H-h-hello Naruto-k-kun."

Naruto momentarily forgot who his audience was. "Hey Hina-chan."

"Hina-chan," he heard two voices say confused.

Naruto then paled as he realized his mistake. He turned to see two people, one of which he was scared of, the other he thought looked kind of cute for her age. The man had long, black hair and featureless white eyes that were very similar to his daughters, Hinata Hyuga, as Naruto had assumed this man was Hiashi Hyuga. He wore a very traditional, loose fitting robe with a long-sleeved brown haori.

The girl had dark brown hair with long parted bangs with a single lock of hair that fell onto her face. She had large, white eyes, like all Hygua clan members, with a hint of lilac in them. She wore a sleeveless, blue v-neck shirt, with mesh armor underneath and blue shorts with sandals.

"Um, I mean, Hinata-san."

The little girl frowned at this. She turned to her father who had only said one word since the boy had arrived and who was staring at him intently. "Father, I do not like this boy," she whispered.

Hiashi just nodded.

"Sit, please," Hiashi said pointing to the seat next to Hinata.

Naruto immediately did as told. An awkward silence rained in the room until Hiashi clapped his hands, calling in two males who set down a large amount of food. It was a feast. There was too much food there for it not to be, although Naruto had no idea why. There were only four people here, how could four people eat that much?

Hiashi began to gather his food, as did Hinata and the girl. Naruto took after their example and did the same, being as neat as he could as he was not well educated in table manners.

"So," Hiashi began. "It has come to my attention that you have been helping my daughter, Hinata, train. Is this true?"

"Yes, Hiash-sama." While Naruto hated the sama ending he gave Hiashi he had thrown it in for good measure just in case the man liked being told he was better than everyone else. The Neji kid who led him here seemed like that type of person, so it may run in the family, only it didn't happen to Hinata, she was too sweet.

The man nodded. "Well, may I ask why? You have never truly met the Hyuga clan, nor did you ask for anything in return. We owe you no favors, and you owe us none, so please explain."

Naruto gave Hiashi a blank stare. "Because she is my friend."

Hiashi paused at that. He had one thought on his mind when he heard Naruto say this, lies. He immediately thought Naruto was lying. After all, why would someone of such obvious poor stature help someone from one of the most, if not the most as the Uchiha Clan had been wiped out, powerful clans in the village? It was simply unheard of. He wanted something, although Hiashi did not know what. However, contrast to what Hiashi thought Naruto actually was just helping Hinata because she was his friend, he had no ulterior motive.

"I see," Hiashi said slowly. "Interesting. Would you by any chance show us a demonstration of what you know?"

Naruto blushed at that. "Well, I don't think I could compare to any of you guys."

Hiashi nodded. "I see, well the choice was yours." However, Hiashi's thoughts were different. '_He must be smarter than he looks to recognize the ploy. Then again he is just a boy, I may be overestimating him. Still, it was smart to not reveal his abilities to someone he does not truly know_.'

Naruto was thinking differently. '_I doubt I could beat anyone here_.'

"Well then, Naruto…"

"Uzumaki."

Hiashi paused. The name, Uzumaki, must have meant he was a part of the Uzumaki Clan that was near wiped out, with few members scattered here and there around the world. However, he knew a person, a woman to be precise, who was married to his former teammate, and carried that name. However, this boy could not be her son, could he? If he was he was practically royalty. After all, being the son of Konoha no Kirroi Senko (Yellow Flash of the Leaf) and Akai Chishio no Habanero (Red-Hot Habanero) would make him a prime target for many of the greedy fools in the village. And while he wanted to deny it, he knew the Hyuga elders would be included in those greedy fools.

Despite all of that Hiashi knew another thing about this boy. He was the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko, he was famous around the village, although it was not a good famous, more like infamous. While Hiashi did not pity the boy's status he also knew the power the Hyuga's would gain if they got the Jinchuriki on their side. Therefore, he also knew that he had to get him to like the Hyuga's, and he would do that through Hinata.

"Well then, Naruto Uzumaki, if I may know, what are your dreams?"

"Well, I don't really know exactly what I want to do completely, however I do know that I want to become Hokage. That way everybody will stop looking at me like they hate me, that way everybody will respect me! I'll be considered as somebody, somebody important!"

Hiashi let a faint smile slip at that. The boy reminded him a lot of Hizashi, his brother. It still saddened him how his brother had died, although he felt a sense of pride too.

However, just because he reminded him of his now deceased brother did not mean he would not try to manipulate him so he was under his control.

"Those are very ambitious dreams. I feel like you will make those dreams come true-" '_And also be a leader figuratively while we run the village secretively. We will help you, and when the time comes, dispose of you_-' "and I wish you good luck."

"Thank you Hiashi-sama."

"So, how did you meet Hinata?"

"I saved her from some bullies," Naruto said not realizing the consequences of what he just said.

"Saved her from some bullies?" The girl shouted out, obviously disbelieving.

"Yes," Naruto said slowly.

"Hanabi!" Hiashi shouted sternly. The girl clamed up but sent a glare towards Naruto, obviously angry at him.

"I see, Hinata, why did you let them pick on you?"

"I-I-I u-um…"

While Hinata stumbled over her words to try and find an answer Naruto interrupted.

"They thought that she looked weird, you know with her eyes and all, although they are really cute, and decided to bully her."

Hinata blushed at the cute comment looking at the ground timidly; however the one with the most hidden show of emotion was Hiashi. While his face stayed neutral on the inside he was quite angry. This boy, who had brazenly come in here and called his daughter Hina-chan, this boy who had boldly called his daughter cute in front of him, was pushing things. Some would say this emotion was akin to fatherly overprotection; however Hiashi rarely felt anything of the sort when it came to Hinata. He usually just felt disappointment.

"I see. Well that is all, if you want you may leave," Hiashi said.

Naruto took that as his signal to get out and stood before bowing. "If you would excuse me," Naruto said before walking out.

'_The boy's power will belong to the Hyuga_,' Hiashi thought.

As Naruto walked out of the complex he felt a feeling of dread and caution overtake him.

'_Why am I so worried_,' the blonde thought.

XxX

Naruto landed at training field 42 with a frown. He was still worried about what Hiashi had said to him on Friday, although he had pushed it out of his mind for now. However, now it was rising to the surface. He wondered why he had this sense of dread, but he could not do anything about it as of now, so he let it go.

"Kakashi-sensei! Anko-sensei!"

The two jonin walked out from the nearby trees, both with smiles on their faces…well Anko had a smile; Kakashi was doing his traditional eye smile.

"Yes Naru-chan," Anko said.

Naruto growled at the woman but continued to talk to them. "I want a jutsu."

Kakashi's eye smile deepened. "We thought you might say that. So we got a jutsu, a basic one, but a jutsu none the less."

Naruto was immediately more engaged in the conversation. "What is it?"

"It is called Suiton: Teppodama (Water Release: Gunshot)."

Kakashi threw him the scroll that the jutsu was contained in and Naruto grabbed it and opened it, revealing its contents to himself.

After a few seconds of reading Naruto understood the basics of the jutsu. Basically, all he had to do was knead chakra and covert it to water, and finally spit it out in the form of condensed balls. It was a high-speed water ball attack that possessed a lot of power to kill. It also held a warning on it. It was best to use where there were areas of water, however you could use your own water supply, inside your body, to create the technique, however you would want to keep a high level of water in your system to do so, as using to many could prove fatal, as you would die of dehydration.

"It is a C-rank jutsu, so it's pretty good, around low chunin, high genin level. Get started," Kakashi said.

Naruto smiled at Kakashi.

"You got it sensei; I'll have this down by the end of the day."

* * *

Hey guys it's Kuma Akuma. Sorry for the short chapter, I was busy. The only one I had time to work on was White Tigers, my One Piece story, as I work on that one first since I upload that one on Fridays. Then I had to go to my introduction to, nope not telling you if I'm in college or highschool. Hehehe. Anyways, then I had to type The Story of Lightning and Wind, my Naruto and Fairy Tail crossover, as I was behind on that. And today was my grandfathers birthday, so yeah, I was very busy. Anyways, keep submitting OCs, the ones I have gotten are good, and just keep getting better. There is a guide for it on my profile.

Also, most people make Hiashi seem like a good guy, but really if you research him, he is just another asshole. I would not go as far to say he does not have feelings, but he does not care to deeply about Hinata, as most people depict him to care a lot about Hinata. By the time of the Genin Exams, he had basically given up on her and only trained Hanabi. He's also a manipulative asshole in my story, and will be for a long time. I'm not saying he won't have character development and learn to care about Hinata and Naruto and support their relationship and stop the Caged Bird Seal, and all the other crap that other authors have him do, but then again that may not happen as well. i may leave him as a manipulative asshole. It depends on what I feel like doing.

Also, if you guys think Hiashi is gonna be manipulative just wait until you meet Kurama and Danzo...yeah this story may have a couple of dark moments in it. Anyways. See you guys later, and avoid the Earl.


	5. Chapter 5

**AnisoulJ93:** Well first off the reason I made Hiashi Minato's teammate was precisely because it's usually on the good Hiashi route. I wouldn't call this the bad Hiashi route, more like the Hyuga Hiashi route. And Hiashi is still a lie detector, but Naruto was not lying, Hiashi just did not believe Naruto.

**Bent**** Shuriken:**No that is not the water jutsu the edo Mizukage and Suigetsu used, I do admit it would be cool if Naruto could do that jutsu though.

**Too many people commented on this and I'm to lazy to put all of your names:**I agree that Hiashi is more militaristic/clan leader centralized. I may have made him look a little like, 'Oh you have power and like my daughter, kinda, I will use her to get to you' type of stuff but it was just the first, and to me most logical as the Hyuga elders will play an important role in the NaruHina side of things, and how Hiashi *spoiler spoiler spoiler* and stuff. Hehehee. But, I do admit he was a tad more of a, I don't know the right word, the type of person that uses people to get what they want? Yeah that seems right.

**I Do not Own Naruto. Yet.**

**Also I would like to thank all of you loyal fans, as we hit 103 followers in only the first 4/5 chapters, so I do deeply thank all of you and will attempt to keep up the good quality work.**

**Time Flies! A Companionship Begins after Years of Contempt! Graduation!**

Naruto groaned as he laid his head down on his table. Iruka was giving another lecture, and to the same person. When would he realize that none of the boys in the class ever truly listened to his lectures, only the girls did? After all they had to look good for their Sasuke-kun, however Naruto still thought of him as more of a teme than anything else.

Naruto frowned as Iruka started to scan over the class to see if any of them were paying any attention. He sat upright as he passed his area, as he did not want to get in trouble. Once Iruka stopped looking his way he laid his head down on the table again and began to nod off.

"Naruto-kun, y-y-you should r-r-really pay a-a-attention," he heard a gentle and soft voice whisper.

Naruto smiled at Hinata. "Sorry Hina-chan. It's just that this is so boring. We're getting the Genin Exams tomorrow, and reviewing basic stuff like this is so dull."

Hinata looked the same as she did earlier in life; she even wore the same clothes only they were a larger size, with only her hair being slightly longer. However, things had changed about her. The major change was that she was no longer exceedingly timid. While she did not voice her opinion all that much, and was still very reluctant to go against anyone, her stuttering had happened less and less in her sentences and she seemed more confident, even if only slightly, in herself.

Naruto meanwhile had changed a lot. He wore a sleeveless dark orange shirt with dark orange bandages going up the entirety of his right arm. On those bandages was the blue Konoha leaf symbol, which was directly on his shoulder. He sported black, baggy pants that reached his black shinobi sandals. There was a black belt holding up the pants which had a weapon holster attached to it. Lastly, he wore a short two-tailed dark orange scarf around his neck, with mesh armor underneath his entire outfit.

However Naruto had not just changed in terms of clothing. No his personality had changed also, as well as his skill. While he still tended to act rather brash, hyperactive, and sensitive, he also had his moments of genius, and silence. He also had gone leaps and bounds in his skill. When he first started his training with Anko and Kakashi he was low genin level, if that, but now he was high genin-level, or in a rival sense of things Sasuke's level.

"Naruto-kun I-I-if y-y-you want to be H-H-Hokage you have to pay a-a-attention in class. Hokage's have t-t-to manage t-t-the A-Academy after a-a-all." Hinata whispered.

"I know Hina-chan. I can't forget. You keep reminding me," Naruto said as he pouted at her. Hinata just smiled faintly and started paying attention in class again.

Naruto instead decided to scout out all of his possible teammates that would be useful. Of course there was Hinata, Chouji, and Shikamaru but he knew he would not get them. Call it a gut instinct but he doubted they would be on his team, no matter how much he truly wanted them to be. There was Shino, who was actually someone Naruto found rather creepy. He was exceedingly silent, even quieter than Sasuke and Shikamaru combined, and that was saying something.

Shino was fair-skinned and actually the tallest out of everyone in the class. He had dark, bushy, brown hair and dark, narrow eyes. He wore a sea-green jacket with a high, upturned collar with dark sunglasses. He wore brown pants that stopped just above his ankles leading to his standard blue shinobi sandals.

Then there was Sakura and Ino. Naruto only wanted Sakura, as he still had a crush on her, although something about that crush was changing. She was being even crueler to him, and her rebuttals usually involved lots of physical punishment instead of just the usual punch on the head. People had told him to give up on her, and that she was not even girlfriend material but he refused to do so.

There was Kiba, who had, like Hinata, only increased his size and still wore the same style of clothing. Lastly, there was, begrudgingly, Sasuke. While Naruto would not deny that Sasuke was a skilled rival he also could not deny, nor would he attempt to, that Sasuke was a complete asshole. He did not listen to what anyone said, and more often than not ridiculed you for opposing him. If anything he had become even more of jerk than he was last year. Apparently their 50-50 record had not humbled him in the slightest.

Iruka frowned at the class. None of them were truly paying attention, save Sakura and Hinata. They were too excited about tomorrow, when the Genin Exams took place. He knew this would happen, and honestly he could not get angry at them. He had done the same thing after all.

With that Iruka just let class end early today, after all, no point in teaching them, plus they got out early today anyways so it truly did not matter. The other classes would be getting out soon too. As the class walked out he saw Naruto and Sasuke glaring at each other, and they were surrounded by girls. While he could tell the majority were fangirls he also saw Hinata in there next to Naruto trying to defuse the upcoming fight. With that in sight Iruka walked up to the brewing fight.

"Is there a problem here," he asked in a stern voice.

Sasuke replied with his usual, "Hn," but Naruto actually answered. "Yes, this teme thinks that he can beat me in a fight, and just asked me to a full on fight, to bad he doesn't know he's gonna lose and I'm gonna make my wins one higher."

Sakura screeched out a, "NO WAY NARUTO-BAKA!" and was soon chorused by the rest of Sasuke's fangirls.

Iruka was just about to speak when he saw a grin come to Naruto's face, the prankster grin. It was well known around Konoha that Naruto was a prankster in heart and soul and loved pranking people. He once had a competition with Anko about who could prank the most people…needless to say it was a close competition, but it was also needless to say Naruto won. Luckily the Hyuga's did now know who sold their underclothes out to the public with their names on it, or else Naruto would have been six feet under.

"Oh yeah, I'm sorry for insulting the great Sasuke Sakura-chan. You know he said that he wants to go on a date with you sometime."

With that Naruto grabbed Hinata and ran as Sakura blushed madly and gave Sasuke a massive hug.

"Really Sasuke-kun, oh I've been waiting for this. I have everything set up…" her speech was cut off by the rest of the fangirls realizing what was said and starting to fight over Sasuke, who was thinking one thing. '_SCREW FUCKING ITACHI! NARUTO YOU ARE FUCKING DEAD! DEAD!_'

XxX

Naruto sighed as he walked down the village. It was night and he had had a boring day. Nothing truly interesting had happened, except for his prank on Sasuke. He would regret that soon. However, the day was still boring even considering that. His training with Hinata went great, as per usual, and she managed to shut down a couple of his tenketsu. Things would be interesting tomorrow, and that was more than likely killing his good vibe.

With that he continued to walk around the village before coming upon something he was not expecting. It was Sasuke. The ever brooding Uchiha was walking down the streets with that same superior look he usually had. However, only a person like Sasuke, who had lost something they cared about deeply, or Naruto, someone who had faced the harsh realities of life, would ever see the sadness that deep in Sasuke's eyes. It was very well hidden, so much that Naruto doubted that even Iruka had noticed Sasuke's sadness. He was willing to bet that very few had, and those few, if he knew their names which he thought he did, he could count on one hand.

"Teme, you look down. Some fangirls rape you today?"

Sasuke looked up and saw Naruto standing in front of him, his prankster smile on his face. Sasuke growled.

"They might have if I didn't know Kawarimi (Body Replacement Technique). As for you, you SET THEM ON ME!"

Sasuke drew a pair of kunai and growled however Naruto's grin only widened.

"I'm afraid you're so called 'cool' persona did that. But you know if you want me to get them I can, I'm pretty sure Ino's house is right-"

Naruto was cut off as Sasuke tried to jam a kunai into his foot, not a lethal blow, just enough to make Naruto stop talking.

"I swear to Kami if you do that I will shove your face so far up your ass you'll be shitting from your mouth for years."

"Oh, big bad Sasuke thinks he's so scary," Naruto instigated.

Sasuke growled and threw his kunai which Naruto blocked by throwing a shuriken at it. The two charged each other both with a fist raised. Sasuke let his fly towards Naruto's head, however Naruto's punch was a fake and he caught Sasuke's fist and sent a front kick towards Sasuke's groin. Sasuke looked shocked for a moment before he jumped in the air, avoiding the kick as Naruto stopped it so he did not hyperextend his knee, and slammed his feet down on Naruto's foot, making the blonde haired shinobi-to-be lose his balance and fall to the ground.

Sasuke tried to punch Naruto's head; however the blonde turned his head to the side before he slipped his legs under Sasuke's armpits and pushed, sending the Uchiha flying off of him. Sasuke landed a good distance away, but as soon as he landed Naruto was already charging. Naruto's legs tensed before he jumped in the air and attempted a flying side kick, however Sasuke rolled away just in time before going through handsigns.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)."

A massive fireball sprang from Sasuke's mouth towards Naruto, heating up the area. Naruto frowned.

'_Yeah, that's not good_.' Naruto thought as he flew through handseals.

"Suiton: Teppōdama (Water Release: Gunshot)."

Naruto opened his mouth and out sprang a liquid bullet that slammed into Sasuke's fireball, extinguishing it and causing a cloak of steam to descend over the area. Sasuke tensed and kept his eyes wandering, never keeping them in one place to long, in a mad search to find Naruto, however Sasuke did not look behind him, and Naruto was behind him.

"Peek-a-boo ASSHOLE!"

Naruto slammed his foot into Sasuke's back causing him to fall, however Sasuke turned on his fall and grabbed Naruto's foot, slamming into the ground next to him. As the cloak of steam arose the two arose before landing a punch square in the others faces sending both of them stumbling backwards.

XxX

The Anbu had already been sent to see who was sending out such high chakra signatures at such a late time and were surprised when they came upon two boys who were not even genin. It was rather interesting to see genin shoot off jutsu that they should not be capable of doing yet.

"My money is on the Uchiha. Anybody wanna go against me?" one Anbu member asked.

"I do," the said a man.

The Anko member turned at a near invisible speed, lashing out at the man with a kunai, however his attack was halted when his wrist was grabbed, by none other than Kakashi.

"Woah there Fox, calm down," Kakashi said in his usual bored tone.

Fox, the Anbu member, growled at Kakashi. "Don't sneak up on me senpai, it's annoying."

Kakashi eye smiled. "Right. But just so you know Naruto is going to win this."

"Doubt it."

XxX

As soon as Kakashi said that Naruto decided it was time to let lose.

"Sorry bout this Sasuke, but I'm gonna hit you with everything I've got! Fuuton: Kūki no Uzu (Wind Release: Air Vortex)."

Naruto slammed his hands on his stomach and from his mouth came a giant spiraling ball of air. It was launched towards Sasuke, and grew in size as it came towards him. Sasuke frowned when he got a good look at it. It was now larger than he was, and he doubted he had a strong enough Katon jutsu to beat it, or strong enough to absorb it, so he did the one thing that came to his mind that would not end in him getting destroyed, he used Kawarimi (Body Replacement Technique. As the log that he replaced himself with was torn to shreds Sasuke appeared behind Naruto, a kunai in hand. He lunged in attempt to stab Naruto, however instead he hit a log and was slammed into a nearby fence.

"Looks like you lose," Naruto said, smiling.

Sasuke growled. "I would never lose to a dobe like you!"

"But you just did Sasuke," Naruto said, a sweatdrop falling from his head.

"NO, I WILL NOT LOSE TO YOU!"

"If you keep shouting you will wake up the people in the houses meaning that everyone will know you lost to me."

Sasuke was quiet after that.

"You know Sasuke I don't get you," Naruto began as he let go off him. "You have everything you could ever want in this village, a nice house, money, girls throwing themselves at you, everyone basically worshipping you, yet you always refuse them. I could understand it if you accepted them all and acted like a stuck up asshole, which you do act like by the way, but you always refuse everyone, why?"

Sasuke growled. "None of your business."

"YOU BEST DAMN BELIEVE IT'S MY BUSINESS! If we're on the same team I won't be able to cooperate with you as you always want to do things by yourself. I understand that at certain times you need to do things by yourself, but unless you explain it to me I can't really help you now can I!?"

Sasuke had a shocked, yet still defiant, expression on his face. He had not expected someone to care about him so much, unless of course they were his fangirls, but he knew for a fact Naruto was not one of them. It was strange, yet comforting. However, he had no right to try and force it out of him. Who did he think he was? He had never lost his entire clan before and be forced to relive that over and over, forced to by none other than your own brother. Who did he think he was?

"You have no right to order me around!" Sasuke roared, however Naruto grabbed Sasuke's shirt and lifted him into the air, but his hands fell to his sides when Sasuke slammed both of his arms on them. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH!"

"Then explain it to me! We've always been enemies, but you know something Sasuke I've always wanted to be FRIENDS with you! Ever since that day I saw you sitting alone on that pier I realized you were like me, you were alone and sad! I wanted to help you! Yet you always rebuked me, and told me I was incapable of doing anything, just let me help you damn it!"

XxX

"Hey Kakashi are they homosexual? Well the Naruto kid anyway, he sure as hell acts like it. There is nothing wrong with it, I support gay marriage, but still," an Anbu whispered. However, Kakashi smacked him on the back of the head.

"I know for a fact that Naruto is not homosexual, as when I taught him Sex-Ed he blushed bright crimson and could never look at Anko the same way, oh and he wanted to beat me to the ground."

The Anbu just frowned, although you could not see it under his mask, and looked on.

"Doesn't seem like it sensei, just saying," he mumbled, however Kakashi smacked him again.

XxX

"Why should I even bother being friends with you!? You're weak," Sasuke hollered.

"So a weak person just beat you then huh. What does that say about you?" Naruto teased, he couldn't resist it.

Sasuke growled and slammed his fist in his palm. "You wanna go again dobe?"

"As long as you don't mind losing again," Naruto hissed.

Sasuke was about to punch Naruto until his hand shot out, for a handshake. "But as friends this time okay?"

Sasuke looked at Naruto's hand before looking back up at Naruto. Did this guy really want to be friends with him? A person who had looked down on him his entire life? Sasuke barely knew Naruto, other than the fact he was in his class and a good rival, not that he would ever admit it.

Sasuke looked back at Naruto's hand. He had been rather bored lately, after all, all he did was train, and while that had its perks he still did miss companionship, after all his only friends were in the clan, and they were all dead. Plus, from his point of view, Itachi had killed his family for three reasons. One, to test his power, two, he always hated the family, and three to make Sasuke live out a life of loneliness. Therefore, why should Sasuke play by Itachi's rules? Itachi would not play by his. He would also have more allies to take down Itachi when the time was necessary, and by that he meant deal with the grunts. Sasuke shook hands with Naruto. He would no longer live in Itachi's shadow.

"Fine."

And with that, their second fight began anew.

XxX

Naruto groaned as he awoke from his very long nap. He had gone to the Academy early, as he was to excited to wait and fell asleep while he was there. As he awoke he saw Hinata sitting next to him, as well as Sasuke sitting to his side, glaring at all of the fangirls that were swarming the desk.

"I thought you wouldn't want to let everyone know we're friend's teme," Naruto said.

"It was the only seat that didn't have another one open next to it, dobe" Sasuke responded.

"Sure," Naruto said, however the dreaded fangirls had heard Naruto's earlier comment and processed it by now.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN FRIENDS NARUTO-BAKA?!"

Sasuke smirked. "Good luck, dobe."

"What do you-OH MY GOD!"

Sasuke's fangirls had literally dragged Naruto away by the hair to berate him with questions about how he became friends with their Sasuke-kun and how they could, also including the common insult on how he could never become friends with someone of Sasuke's status. They began to ignore everything he said afterwards; not believing a loser and orphan could ever become friends with someone as prestigious as on Uchiha. They did not know they were giving up on free advice, as Naruto would have been more than happy to tell them, if only to make Sasuke's life horrid.

Naruto walked back over to his seat only to see the fangirls fighting over it, with Sasuke and Hinata looking absolutely annoyed at the entire thing, although Hinata tried to conceal hers. Naruto sighed and easily got away from the girls and sat in his seat, however they noticed this and glared at him.

"What are you doing Naruto-baka," they began to hiss, however the loudest ones were Sakura and Ino.

"I'm sitting in my seat," Naruto mumbled tiredly.

"AND WHO SAYS YOU GET TO SIT NEXT TO SASUKE!" Sakura screeched, making all of the boys hold their ears. Sakura cocked her fist back and threw a punch at Naruto however he just caught the fist and glared at Sakura.

"I'm not going to let you beat me up anymore Sakura-chan."

After all, just because he liked her didn't mean he had to let her abuse him.

Hinata grabbed Naruto's arm and shook her head slightly, signaling him to stop. He lowered his hand and opened up his fuinjutsu book, however he was not oblivious to the entire class' silence. He was surprising them that much he knew. Ever since last year he had just been full of surprises, and apparently stopping Sakura had been a surprise. It left a lasting impression on them, mainly along the lines of, 'If the dobe can do this what other surprises has he been holding out on?' However the only other surprise Naruto had for them was passing this test.

It was at that moment that Iruka walked in, ironically.

"Everyone sit down," he said in his usual stern voice. The fangirls gave one more scathing glare at Naruto before finding a seat, obviously as close as they could get to Sasuke.

With that done Iruka looked at the nearby Mizuki who nodded. Iruka nodded back and waved his hand upwards. The entire class stood and walked out the door to the training grounds.

"Okay, first off it's the kunai and shuriken throwing part of the exam. You will have five of each in your hand and must hit your targets, scoring at least a six or above to pass this part of the exam."

As everyone went Naruto became even more disappointed in the fangirls performance, and, while he hated to admit it, Sakura's performance. Every girl, save Hinata, got a four or lower, and Naruto was pretty sure the fours were just luck. Hinata scored an eight, completely blowing all of them out of the water, especially considering the fact that Hyuga's were usually taijutsu orientated fighters and did not fight at long range. It was then the boys turn. This was much better as Shino scored nine, Kiba scored eight, Shikamaru, being lazy, only scored six, enough to pass although Naruto knew he could have done better, Chouji scored a seven, however that was when all the decent, or exceptional in Shino's case, scores ended. Sasuke went up, and as expected, his fangirls cheered for him. When he was given the kunai and shuriken he threw them all simultaneously, each landing with a bull's-eye.

"Nicely done Sasuke, perfect score," Iruka said. "Lastly, Uzumaki Naruto."

Sasuke walked away smirking all the while, while he fangirls fawned over him, however when he passed Naruto he said one thing.

"Dobe."

"Teme."

Iruka handed Naruto his kunai and shuriken, however instead of the usual standing in place and throwing them Naruto ran in a circle so he got dizzy before throwing them at the wooden post. He scored an eight.

"HAHA, NARUTO-BAKA CAN'T BEAT MY SASUKE-KUN!" Ino and Sakura roared, forcing everyone to cover their ears at the sound of the shrill voice of a banshee.

"She has a slight point Naruto. You could have scored a ten, why didn't you," Iruka asked.

"Because, in combat we won't have the luxury of our enemy standing still, therefore I made myself dizzy to counteract this affect," Naruto said.

Sasuke growled at Naruto; however what he said made sense. He should have thought of that. He was an Uchiha after all.

Iruka nodded. It made sense, and was quite true; still the old Naruto would not have thought of this and only threw the kunai and shuriken, matching Sasuke. He wondered who help the boy mature or train.

"Okay, next up, the written exam."

They walked back into the Academy and sat down, Sasuke sitting next to Naruto who sat next to Hinata. As the exam was passed out Sasuke looked fine as did Hinata, however Naruto looked dead.

"N-N-Naruto-kun?"

Naruto looked over at Hinata, looking at her timidly.

"Y-y-you can u-u-use my answers if y-y-you w-w-want," she said.

Sasuke and Naruto both looked at her, surprised, although for different reasons. Sasuke because this girl was willingly offering NARUTO a way to breeze pass all of the questions, as Hinata was one, if not the smartest, not counting Sakura, girl in the class. Naruto on the other hand, was surprised because Hinata was willing to sacrifice her own clan's honor, if she got caught, and her only purity to help him out. It was sweet of her.

"Thank you Hina-chan, but I can't do that. It's too much to ask."

Hinata nodded but looked away sadly. Naruto noticed this and felt a strange sadness overtake him as he noticed her sad, for some reason he hated seeing her like that even more than he usually did. He gave her a side hug.

"Truly thank you Hina-chan, you're a great friend."

Hinata began to blush madly and think the same lines over and over again in her head, all along the lines of, '_Naruto-kun is hugging me! Do not faint! Do not faint_!' She managed to stay conscious and subconsciously scooted closer to Naruto, although he did not notice.

Naruto removed his arm and started the test. As soon as he saw the first question his head hit the table. He knew he would fail this right off the bat.

XxX

Naruto was surprised as he turned his test in, and the class finally sighed. He had taken three hours alone to complete that test, while the rest of the class finished it within an hour. But, Naruto was well, Naruto and while he was middle of the pack in terms of brains he still hated studying and because of that he did not study during his late night yesterday, resulting in a brain fart which resulted in him freaking out. However, he was positive he managed to scrape by, if only barely.

However now was the final part of the test, the jutsu portion. Naruto watched as many people went into a nearby room, some coming back with headbands, and some coming back with sadness all over their faces.

"You're going to fail dobe," Sasuke whispered.

"In your dreams," Naruto responded.

Sasuke just smirked before going back to his usual brooding attitude. Naruto frowned at that but then shrugged. It would take time, he was actually opening up faster than Naruto thought he would.

It took a while, but Sasuke's name was finally called and after a couple of minutes he came back with a headband, followed by Hinata who did the same thing. Naruto's name was called afterward.

"G-g-good luck Naruto-kun," Hinata said.

Naruto began walking down the steps and gave Hinata a thumbs up. "Thanks Hina-chan."

With that Naruto walked into the nearby room. He stood in front of Iruka and Mizuki, both of which looked at him sternly.

"Perform a Kawarimi (Body Replacement Technique) Naruto," Iruka said.

Naruto did so and switched places with Iruka. Iruka nodded and switched places with Naruto before looking at him again.

"Henge (Transformation Technique)."

Naruto transformed into the third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. Once Iruka nodded Naruto let the jutsu dispel, returning him to his normal form, enough time to prepare for the one thing Naruto knew would be on the test and something he was dreading.

"And finally do a Bunshin (Clone Technique)."

Naruto took a deep breath. He had had practiced this over and over all last night. He had done all of his chakra control exercises over and over as well. He could do this. With that he drew on the smallest portion of chakra he could and unleashed it in a clone. When the clone appeared on the floor next to him Naruto was worried, however he saw it had a brighter green complexion than usual and it was not lying on the floor, as per usual, and was instead sitting down.

"Um." Iruka mumbled.

"That would qualify as a sick person," Mizuki said.

"True," Iruka said, "however that clone is horrid."

Naruto sighed. He had just barely passed the test.

"Well, albeit barely on the jutsu portion, you passed the Genin Exam with an average of 90 out of the maximum one hundred you could have gotten. Great job Naruto," Iruka said.

Naruto smiled as Iruka handed him his headband. It had light blue cloth with the metal plate with the Konoha leaf symbol in the center of the metal plate. Naruto smiled and tied it around his forehead.

Naruto walked outside proudly, surprising everyone. They were honestly not expecting him to pass, save Sasuke, Hinata, Shikamaru, and Chouji. However as the last people came in and out they had no time to wonder how Naruto passed as they had to go and take their own tests, some coming back with sadness all over their faces. Naruto sighed as Iruka came out, absolutely pleased with the outcome of the test.

"With that we will announce the Rookie of the Year, who is Sasuke Uchiha, with a close runner-up being Naruto Uzumaki."

The entire fanbase of Sasuke cheered, celebrating his victory over Naruto, however the boys were impressed. Naruto had climbed the ladder up to Sasuke's level fairly quickly. They wondered what was next from him.

"And with that you guys are dismissed, congratulations."

The class began to filter out of the classroom until Mizuki walked up to Naruto and led him away.

"Naruto I have some information for you."

"What is it Mizuki-sensei?"

"Do you want to learn how to make better Bunshin (Clone Technique), ones that you could use effectively?"

Naruto looked shocked.

* * *

Hey guys it's Kuma Akuma. I think you will like this chapter, with a capital THINK. So yeah. Sorry for not uploading this one on Friday, early, like I updated all of my other stories earlier. There was an error and it would not let me upload the chapter until today, even though I finished the chapter on Friday. So yeah that kinda sucks. Anyways, yes lots of impending doom, and not only with Danzo, who will be showing up soon so get ready for that, and Kurama, but also the Mizuki incident. It's surprising I know, but get ready for it, cause it's gonna happen, and you're going to be exceedingly surprised.

Also, I'd like to thank all of the people who have sent in OCs namely being: OfficerShadowcat. While few, that OC was AMAZING! So yeah, that's a thing. Keep sending them in.

Well, that's really it, I don't have much to say, except thank you for the 103 followers you guys rock. I'm planning on doing something for that, but I don't know what yet...maybe White Tigers vs. The main cast of Uzumaki Namikaze Legend. That will be a long while from now then though, as the White Tigers would one-shot these guys as it is now, except for Anko and Kakashi. They'd win their fights. Well see you guys later, and avoid the Earl.


	6. Chapter 6

**I own nothing, except my own OCs, which are not in the story yet. Congratulations, lawyers. Enjoy this while you can. Naruto will be mine soon. **

**Betrayal of a Sensei! Enter Danzo Shimura!**

"That's really possible Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto asked. Mizuki smiled at Naruto and nodded. To be honest Mizuki was not lying; there was a way for Naruto to use clones that would actually suit him, ones that he could use in battle quite effectively. However, just because Naruto could use them did not mean Mizuki was doing this for Naruto's own good. No, Mizuki hated Naruto, extremely, after the incident twelve years ago on October 10th. In Mizuki's mind Naruto had no right to parade around acting all foolish and happy. No he deserved to be put in a cage, exactly where he belonged.

That was to say Mizuki's anger was justified of course, which it was not. In fact, while his anger was not justified, almost the entire village of Konohagakure felt the same way. They all hated Naruto, all for something that was in no way his fault, but they thought he was the reincarnation of _it_. That was not to say their fear was not justified, if only slightly. After hearing the stories of what happened when people like Naruto lost control, it was only right of them to fear him at least. A person who did not was strange indeed.

"Yes, however the technique is heavily guarded, to heavily guarded for anyone without your exceptional skills to reach. It's in a scroll, in the Hokage tower. I'll meet you outside the village at night time to see how you're doing. Once you're done learning it we'll return the scroll and continue to practice it."

Naruto paused. Sure, he was a sucker for a new technique, but something about this did not seem right to him. Call it a fledgling danger sense if you would, but something was fishy here. After all why would you need to guard a jutsu that should be open to shinobi? More so, why could only Naruto, a preteen who was not even on par with many chunin, be the only person to get the scroll without getting caught? It made no sense. Originally Naruto would have jumped at the chance, however Kakashi and Anko had beat, literally beat, one lesson into him in particular over the last year more than any other. If something seemed suspicious, don't trust it. In the end, Naruto's love for jutsu, including the fact he could finally use a Bunshin (Clone Technique) correctly if this worked, won out.

"Okay sensei. I'll get the scroll and learn the jutsu. But, what happens if I get caught?"

'_That's the best part. Nobody will believe what you have to say, they'll believe me. Then you'll get executed for treason, not even the Hokage will be able to stop it. The shinobi side of the council will overrule him, if they recognize that the boy has no use as a Jinchuriki. Even if you do somehow manage to get the scroll I'll kill you in the forest_.' Mizuki thought darkly.

"Don't worry, nothing bad will happen to you, it'll all end up fine," Mizuki said. Naruto nodded and jogged off after the conversation had ended, leaving with a, "See you later then Mizuki-sensei!"

XxX

Naruto walked up to Kakashi and Anko smiling and pointing to his headband. "Look here Kakashi-sensei, Anko-sensei, I'm a ninja now." Anko and Kakashi looked over at the boy, smiling once they saw the forehead protector on his…well forehead.

"Congratulations gaki. You're a ninja now, meaning that your training will get intensified. That's also because Kakashi can no longer train you individually."

Naruto looked puzzled at that and looked at Kakashi. "Why not sensei?"

Kakashi sighed and sent a mini glare towards Anko, not wanting Naruto to know until tomorrow, when he was assigned his team. "Well, since somebody can't keep their mouth shut I'll tell you earlier than expected. She's right Naruto, I can't keep training your personally. As you know I possess the Sharingan in my left eye. Also, as you know, Sasuke Uchiha has the bloodline to activate this kekkei genkai, as it is from his family's bloodline. Therefore, as per the council's orders, I must be his jonin sensei and train him to use the Sharingan."

Naruto frowned at that. To him it just sounded like more of the Uchiha special treatment Sasuke was always getting. It frustrated him to no end. The fact that somebody like Sasuke could get everything he wanted without having to move a muscle, all because of his damn bloodline and the fact he was the last of his clan. If this clan was so great and powerful why was Sasuke the last one of them anyway? That alone made Naruto think that Sasuke didn't deserve all the special attention he was getting.

"I see sensei…so Anko-sensei is the only one who will be training me from here on out huh," Naruto mumbled looking at the ground, his golden bangs hiding his eyes.

Kakashi felt bad when he saw Naruto look so depressed. He truly wanted to teach Naruto too, as a teacher and as his father's student, but the council would do something to Naruto if he didn't, especially if they knew he was helping Naruto over Sasuke. While Kakashi had not personally met the boy, from the way Naruto described him before the days of their friendship, also known as every single day as Naruto did not know Kakashi knew of their new friendship, he would not like the Uchiha. Not because he was spoiled, because from what Naruto said he was very hardworking. Sure he thought everything should come to him naturally at times, but the boy still put in effort. In fact, the only reason Kakashi would say he wouldn't like him is because of the fact that the boy was...high-strung. He was very brash, and didn't think before he acted. In a way he was exactly like Naruto, and Kakashi did NOT need two Naruto's in his life. No he just thought the boy could prove to be troublesome, and Kakashi hated troublesome.

Kakashi also knew the boy was a loose canon, not only from personal experience but from what the Hokage had said. He desired power very badly, to badly in fact. If offered it there was a potential threat of him abandoning the village to get it. That was the second most important reason Kakashi had decided to obey the council this time, to teach the boy loyalty and friendship, and Naruto did not know how much he helped with that mission by befriending Sasuke.

Of course, Kakashi had personal reasons for this too, like honoring a friend's sacrifice.

"Don't worry Naruto. I'll still be able to stop by sometimes and train you. I won't be disappearing completely. Plus, I do have some say on what genin I get to raise, and while I technically only have two spots of people I can choose from, you should know for a fact that one of those spots belongs to you, so I may be able to train you."

Naruto perked up at that. "Does that mean you can keep training me sensei?"

"Yes, Naruto yes it does."

Anko smiled at the scene. She would so be using this against Kakashi in the future. Who knew the scarecrow had a soft spot, especially for Naruto Uzumaki, the Jinchuriki of the village. It was too great of an opportunity to pass up, for getting what she wanted anyway.

Naruto smiled before looking at Kakashi and Anko.

"Then what are you waiting for, let's get to training!"

XxX

Sasuke groaned as he fired off another Katon jutsu. Those were exceedingly taxing on his reserves, but it mattered not. After all, he was an Uchiha! They were born to be on top, with no one having the power, nor the courage, to oppose them. While he appreciated his newfound friendship he found in Naruto his training came first and foremost. With that in mind he kept up his training, starting his Uchiha-specific style of taijutsu. He bobbed and weaved, pretending there was an opponent before unleashing a barrage of hits. He had to keep getting stronger.

To kill his brother.

XxX

Tenten sighed as her sensei, Might Guy, continued to push them even harder than usual. While Tenten would admit her sensei was nothing short of powerful, he was also rather…eccentric was the nicest word she could use to describe him. In fact he had infected one of her teammates with his, strangeness. Only her and Neji Hyuga, who she had to admit may look attractive but was a total asshole, were the normal ones in their squad.

In fact, Guy was there now, doing 300 laps around their training field, on one hand. It was nothing short of insane. Still, it did help him, physically and she assumed mentally. He was too absorbed in his so-called 'youth' to get an accurate reading on it.

Guy was tall and well-build with high cheek-bones, unnaturally thick eyebrows, and had black hair in cut in a bowl style. He wore a hideous green jumpsuit, with orange striped leg warmers and the standard Konoha flak jacket, though it was unzipped. His forehead protector, which should have been on his forehead, was tied around his waist with a red cloth, like a belt.

However, that was not the end of her nightmares. No his mini-clone was also there, doing the same style of training as the sensei. It was Rock Lee, a boy who was supposed to have been a dead last who was undoubtedly stronger than the majority of their graduating class as of now. Guy's training allowed him to bloom into a taijutsu-specialist ninja, much like Neji. However, if there was anything Tenten disliked about Lee, it was who he looked up to. It was Guy.

Lee possessed the same unnaturally thick eyebrows Guy had, and large, rounded black eyes with prominent eyelashes. His hair was cut in the same bowl-cut style as Guy, and he wore the same attire, the green jumpsuit, orange leg warmers, red forehead protector worn as a belt, everything. The only difference was the bandages he wore around his hands and wrists.

Tenten sighed as she began running her laps.

"I wonder what Naruto's doing," she mumbled.

XxX

Hinata dodged another strike from her younger sister Hanabi before moving in for the kill. She lashed out at Hanabi, barely managing to hit her chest before following up with three palm strikes that stopped Hanabi's arm movement. As Hiashi called the match and walked up to his daughters along with the Hyuga elder he smiled. His daughters were growing strong. However, that also meant that they would have to fight for the position of clan head soon. That was something he did not want happening to soon. The weakest one would be branded on put into the branch family, despite their near royal blood. It would be a sad day when that happened. However, until then Hiashi would train his daughters to become powerful ninja, for the Hyuga's sake, not for the village.

XxX

Naruto hopped outside the village gates with the massive scroll in hand. It was rather easy to steal the scroll from the Anbu, which was surprising. Maybe they thought nobody would try to and their guard was down, or they were preoccupied with something? Or, in the worse case scenario, they had caught Naruto and asked the Sarutobi what they should do, which would most definitely in Naruto getting a stern talking to, in the least. Naruto ignored these thoughts however; as he jumped down from the rock he was on and looked over at the nearby forest. He smiled at the possibilities.

Naruto sprinted off into the forest, showing good chakra control by using small bursts of it, miniscule so the Anbu or any other ninja nearby would not notice, to get far into the forest. Once he had reached a good distance away he sat down and opened the scroll. What he found was beyond his expectations.

The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique) was the first jutsu he found. After reading over it he quickly found all the key points in the jutsu. It was similar to the basic Bunshin (Clone Technique). It created copies of the user. However, these clones were corporeal instead of illusions. The user's chakra was evenly distributed among every clone, giving each clone an equal fraction of the user's overall power. The clones are capable of performing techniques on their own and could even bleed, but would usually disperse after hit by a strong enough force. The clones could also disperse on their own or be dispelled by the user of the technique. Shadow clones can't be distinguished from the actual person even by dōjutsu because the clones have the exact same amount of chakra as the original, and aren't made from any other substance like water clones are for example. Shadow clones also are capable to think for themselves and feel the original's pain to some extent.

All in all Naruto thought it would be a very useful jutsu, plus it was B-ranked, which was the highest rank jutsu he would know. He also read that it was a kinjutsu, meaning it was a forbidden jutsu, although it seemed to be only because of its high chakra cost. That mattered not though, after all Naruto's chakra reserves would abnormally high, higher than even the Sandaime's, which meant it was the highest in the village. Naruto smiled at the thought of using these clones.

He quickly got to work on using them, forming the cross handseal he had to make before gathering up chakra. The chakra formed quickly, a large burst of it; however that also meant it was much harder to control.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)," Naruto roared. Two puffs of smoke appeared next to him, and when they cleared two more Naruto's were there grinning.

"Success," the three cheered.

"Congratulations Naruto," Mizuki said.

Naruto looked up at his supposed caring sensei, smiling at him. "Hey Mizuki-sensei, thanks for the tip on the jutsu, it's awesome. Now I can create proper Bunshin (Clone Technique) without anyone being able to ridicule me. It's thanks to you that I'll be able to be a capable ninja!"

Mizuki smiled. "Really now? Then I have something to ask of you Naruto."

"What is it Mizuki-sensei," Naruto asked.

Mizuki walked into the moonlight, removing the giant fuma shuriken from his back and beginning to spin it wickedly. Naruto frowned at the sight. He now knew the answer Mizuki would give.

"DIE!"

XxX

The entire village of Konohagakure was up in arms. Somebody had stolen the Scroll of Seals from right under the Anbu's noses. It was absurd. The Anbu were supposed to be the best of the best, the guardians and assaulters of death that kept the village safe. How on earth did somebody manage to steal a scroll that was filled to the brim with kinjutsu and powerful ninjutsu that was so heavily guarded? It made no sense. No one but an extremely high level shinobi should have been able to do it, key word should.

Still, the village had sent shinobi in every direction to search for the scroll. It was a massive hunt, and the Anbu who failed at guarding the scroll were searching even more furiously than the others. That was a given though, after all they would most likely be executed for their blunder, if it was an enemy shinobi, which was what it was thought to be. If it wasn't they would must likely just be severely punished and put under surveillance for a while, obviously the more preferable of the choices.

Iruka jumped through another tree branch as he checked the perimeter of the village. He hoped he found the perpetrator soon, if only to bring him to the so-called 'justice' of the Leaf Village, after all, there was no true version of justice in the shinobi world. Everyone killed and everyone hated, it was the law of shinobi, kill or be killed.

XxX

Danzo Shimura smiled as he watched the blonde genin candidate sprint from the hate-filled traitorous chunin. While he knew the chunin would have to die, as he did betray the village by trying to kill one of their most prized weapons, the Jinchuriki, he also knew this was the perfect time for him to come in contact with the Jinchuriki. Hiruzen had managed to keep the boy from falling under his grasp and becoming what he was meant to become, an emotionless killer, but he could not stop him now. It was his chance, to act benevolent before manipulating the boy into his pawn, which he would use to overthrow Sarutobi. Once that happened he would become Hokage, and with the power of the perfect Jinchuriki under his control, he would conquer the other nations, and rule with an iron fist. Nothing would stop him, it was the perfect chance, and he intended to take it. Apparently, taking a leisurely stroll through the forest was beneficial to him today.

Danzo was a frail, old man, who walked with a cane. He had black, shaggy hair and his right eye was completely bandaged. He had an x-shaped scar on his chin and wore a white shirt, with a black robe over the top of it covering from his feet to just over his right shoulder. His right arm was bandaged, however his right arm was unable to be seen as the robe concealed it.

However, more importantly this man was a village elder, a village elder with a passion for absolute, unopposed control.

XxX

Naruto dodged another toss of a fuma shuriken, albeit barely. He looked upwards before he jumped into the air using chakra to propel him higher, even if it didn't do much. However, he was soon met by a kunai-wielding Mizuki who lashed out at him with the kunai. Naruto scrambled in midair, blocking the slash with his hands, which began to bleed. As soon as they landed Naruto shot backwards, followed closely by Mizuki who launched several shuriken at Naruto, however Naruto drew a kunai quickly and deflected the shuriken. However, Naruto soon realized he was not near a high enough level to be taking on a trained chunin and was kicked in the side, sending him flying into a nearby tree.

"Mizuki-sensei…why?" Naruto asked, however what he heard was not what he was expecting.

"Why," Mizuki mumbled. "DID YOU JUST ASK ME WHY!? You, you are a demon! Have you ever wondered why people looked at you with hatred, why every year on October 10th; the day the Kyuubi no Yoko attacked you were assaulted and beaten? Why the Yondaime Hokage died mysteriously on the same day you were born? It's simple! You are the Kyuubi no Yoko! You are the Nine Tailed Fox! But I don't care about that. No I care only about power and what better way to get power than to steal it from under your so-called leader's nose. You, you were just a scapegoat, and a scapegoat that happened to be hated, so no one would care about your death!"

Naruto stood, frozen, at that. He did not care about what Mizuki said about power, but he did care about the beginning and ending of his little speech. He was the Kyuubi no Yoko in human form? No, that was impossible. In the history books it said that the Yondaime Hokage defeated and killed the fox, it was impossible for him to be it. Then again, he had also read that it was impossible to kill a Bijuu, and that was why they had survived so long, terrorizing humanity. He didn't know which one to believe. However, if that did explain one thing it was why the people of the village glared at him with such disdain. They thought he was the reincarnation of the Kyuubi, plain and simple. They hated him, despised him. They wanted his blood split. Naruto began to shake, hyperventilating. While he did not even realize it Mizuki had slowly but surely broke down Naruto's mental barriers he had created with one short speech. No one caring for him, not caring whether or not he existed, people thinking he was nothing short of a demon that deserved death, it was too much for a boy his age to take.

XxX

Danzo smiled as he saw Naruto begin to falter. Mizuki did not know it but he had done Danzo a favor. Odds were Naruto would not have believed him if he saw him randomly wandering through the forest, but if Danzo killed Mizuki, saving Naruto's life in the process and proving to be a kind and caring figure Naruto was sure to fall under his thumb, especially considering that his mental barriers were so low. With that Danzo prepared his jutsu.

XxX

"NOW DIE NINE TAILED FOX!" Mizuki roared throwing his final fuma shuriken at Naruto's head. Naruto was paralyzed, unable to move. His body wasn't functioning. It wasn't moving when he commanded it to. It just stood there, to deep in shock to do anything.

That was until his hands suddenly began flowing, without him even noticing it. He finished his handseals and slammed his palm on the air in front of him. "Fuinjutsu: Yōyū Tetsu no Shīru (Sealing Technique: Seal of Melting Iron)!"

Naruto removed his hand and formed the seal for the Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone) just as the fuma shuriken made contact with the seal that was floating in midair. The seal was not his, in fact it was a seal made by the author of the first sealing book he had read, Jiraiya, however that did not mean it was not a powerful seal. No it was powerful indeed. As soon as the shuriken made contact with the seal it burst into flames. By the time it had moved past the seal it was just melted iron, as prophesied by the name.

A massive amount of clones appeared around Naruto, around thirty in all. They all charged, including Naruto. They began to fire off a hail of kunai and shuriken as they neared Mizuki; however the chunin avoided them all quite easily, as they still had the accuracy of a genin.

XxX

'_Where is this power coming from? It is unexpected. I knew he was being trained by the Copy Ninja, and the Snake Mistress, but for him to actually push a chunin backwards? Absurd. Something is going on here. Could this be his talent? Does this boy actually have that much untapped talent that no one took notice of? More importantly, how is he doing this when he should be plagued with self doubt_!?' Danzo raged in his mind. It made no sense; then again it just made the boy all the more intriguing.

XxX

Mizuki ducked under a wild swing from a clone before getting hit in the back by two more. It wasn't that he wasn't capable of avoiding Naruto's hits, they weren't up to his skill level, but there were too many. A large amount of numbers could overwhelm even the most powerful of opponents, or opponents that outmatched you.

Mizuki ducked under another clones punch before pulling out two kunai, one per hand, and spinning like a top. Instantly the closet Naruto clones were destroyed, vanishing in a puff of smoke and swirling death. Naruto, who was hiding in the bushes and did not even see what Mizuki was doing, was suddenly bombarded with a headache and cried out in pain. He had gotten a splitting headache, for a reason he did not know. He began to think on it.

'_I don't have a medical disease; I've never had any of those, strangely. I don't have any mental problems, so why would I get a headache now of all times. Plus, why did that headache come with memories of what Mizuki was doing even though I can't see him. Do the clones send memories back to the user? No, that's impossible…isn't it_?'

However, Naruto thought about it to long, plus his cry directed Mizuki to his location, and was nearly hit with a barrage of kunai and shuriken to the head. He ducked under it; however it did take off a few stray locks of hair. He jumped into the heavily cloaked bushes, now fully prepared to fight back against Mizuki, to save his life.

Naruto hid in the bushes as Mizuki landed, looking around. You could see that he was angry just by the way he was furiously glancing around. He had the eyes of a madman, an enraged madman. That was something Naruto had seen before, which made him realize that this was not the time to joke around and let the enemy do what he wanted.

Mizuki began to fly through and seals before ending on the tiger seal, clear signs for a Katon jutsu. Naruto's eyes shot up at that, he couldn't let him finish that jutsu, or else Konoha would flock to this spot in an attempt to find out what was going on, meaning that Naruto would get caught, and that was considering they didn't find the chakra blasts they were sending out already.

"Time to die, Nine Tailed-"

A kunai and shuriken being thrown from two trees made Mizuki stop his jutsu to dodge before he smiled cruelly.

"DUMBASS!"

Mizuki gathered his chakra up again before two Naruto's snuck up behind him and latched onto his arms, preventing him from forming any more handseals.

"The hell!?" Mizuki roared, however as three more clones charged in from the sidelines and landed punches Mizuki forgot about how this was happening, he only knew that he was going to kill Naruto, slowly and painfully.

The second clone punched Mizuki in the face, or at least the clone thought so, in reality he found himself actually punching another clone, which dispersed in a burst of smoke. Mizuki had switched places with it using Kawarimi (Body Replacement Technique), appearing next to the clone with two kunai in either hand that he used to "kill" every clone near him. It was smart, and something Naruto was not expecting, however he was slightly prepared now.

Naruto flew through handseals, knowing that as he gathered this much chakra people would take notice of him. However, he would rather people take notice of him than get killed, he couldn't keep up with Mizuki that much longer after all. He was getting tired, and fighting someone who was way above his level was not a pleasurable experience.

Naruto slammed his hands on a nearby tree and whispered, "Fuinjutsu: Mahi Shīru (Sealing Technique: Paralysis Seal). A seal formed on the tree, the last seal necessary for the paralysis to take place and for Naruto to finish his jutsu. Little did he know he would have to activate it fast, as Mizuki was charging his location, with intent to kill.

Mizuki appeared before Naruto just as Naruto slammed his hands on the seal.

"Kai (Release)."

All at once the Naruto clones, that were in a pentagon shape dispersed, and Naruto jumped backwards. The five points of the pentagon, which were seals, began to glow a bright yellow and an electric beam shot out in the shape of a pentagon. Everything within the electric field immediately stopped moving, but more importantly, Mizuki stopped moving.

"I-I did it," Naruto said, stumbling over his own words.

"Yes, you did boy," Naruto heard. He turned, senses on alert, even though he knew that if this person could hide from him that entire fight he stood no chance of winning against him, after all he only won against Mizuki because his jutsu were more versatile and distracting, and also because Mizuki was to slow to catch him in time, basically it was just luck. Otherwise Naruto knew with all of his heart he would have died then.

Naruto saw Danzo walking out of the bushes towards him, and was immediately confused. How could this crippled old man hide from his senses? It was strange.

"I am Danzo Shimura, advisor of the Hokage, whom I believe you know, Naruto Uzumaki."

"How do you know my name?"

"Everyone in the village of Konohagakure knows of you, the legendary boy born on the day the Kyuubi no Yoko attacked."

Naruto grimaced. That must mean that this man hated his guts too.

"Well, what do you want then?"

"I was just taking a stroll and I came upon you, with the Scroll of Seals, fighting a chunin traitorous ninja. I don't know whether or not you were stopping him or trying to kill him, so I won't say anything about this to the Hokage, however jonin are on the way, you'd best tell them what happened here," Danzo lied. He knew what happened, while he had actually been taking a midnight stroll he also knew that Naruto was the one who actually stole the scroll, even if he was being most likely misguided by that chunin.

"Then you're not mad at me," Naruto asked.

Danzo shook his head. "No, no I am not. However, I have a question for you."

"Yes," Naruto said.

Danzo smiled, depending on his answer the boy would live or die, after all if the Jinchuriki was not with him he was against him, and having a Jinchuriki against you was never a good thing.

"Do you think a tree needs strong roots to grow?"

Naruto paused at the strange question. He had no idea what it meant, but since this man was an ex-shinobi, as all advisors of the Hokage were, he knew it must have some hidden meaning. So he gave the most logical answer he could think of.

"I guess."

Danzo smiled. "Good. Well then, Naruto Uzumaki, we shall meet again. If you seek advice or a way to further your training in the shinobi arts do not hesitate to ask. I know many people who wish to meet you. If you need to know where I live, just ask the closest person, even they will not turn you down."

Naruto looked at Danzo strangely, before the man turned to him. "Remember Naruto, a beast must be caged, and also know this. In the shinobi world emotions are hindrances. They can be the difference between life and death."

Danzo then walked away and thought one thing. '_You are a beast_.'

Naruto fainted and Mizuki's head was cut off just as Danzo disappeared and the jonin arrived.

* * *

Hey guys it's Kuma Akuma. Today was good for me, you know seeing my brother and father go on a race track, and laughing my ass off because they were creeping through it the entire time, ha, good times good times. By the way, some of you may ask, "Why does Naruto know the secret of the Shadow Clones so soon?" He doesn't he is just curious. Plus, really, we all know that Kishimoto made that up on the spot to help Naruto make the Rasenshuriken. Really, how is Naruto not going to notice that, it was just bull in my opinion, therefore Naruto is noticing the effects, immediately, well not exactly immediately, but soon. Also, Naruto barely beat Mizuki, bet you guys didn't think I was gonna do that. I bet you thought I was gonna have Naruto one-sidely whoop Mizuki, or have him basically beat Mizuki like he did in the canon. I sure showed you whose boss! I'm sorry, I'm really bored right now. Well, that's it, gonna go watch my One Piece, and finish doing my damn homework. See you guys later, and avoid the Earl.


	7. Chapter 7

**Millineal:** I see. I will try to do what you ask, although I do not know if I will succeed. Thanks for telling me though.

**Jose19:** Naruto will not become the villain of this story. Also, if you read my Author's Note which I do not know whether or not you did, i said that multiple people will try to persuade Naruto to joining them, as he is the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko, his power would be wanted badly by the higher ups of the village. Also, Naruto doesn't know that, and Danzo saved him, therefore he has no reason to not trust him. Also, this is not the original story of Naruto, it is a fanfic that will deviate from the original story, and possibly go back on it, not sure on that yet, all I know is that it will deviate. Also, accepting help and being a persons slave are very different things. Read my author's notes.

**BentShuriken: **For the sake of suspense I will answer part of your question. Naruto did not get help from Iruka you are right, therefore he may or may not have problems thinking he is the Kyuubi incarnate. But, he will put this to the back of his mind at the moment. It may or may not come up later in teh story. Sorry for the cryptic answer, but I need to keep somethings hidden.

** I Own Nothing.**

**A New Team**

Naruto walked out of the Hokages office quite tired. He had barely gotten any sleep last night, after the events with Mizuki and Danzo. After explaining what happened to Sarutobi he went straight to bed after Sarutobi warned Naruto to never steal the Scroll of Seals again. Apparently the council had tried to get him executed for doing so and Hiruzen had barely been able to save him. Sarutobi called him back up to talk to Ibiki, who had some questions for him, the very next day. Naruto shivered as Ibiki tried to get information from him, despite the fact that what he did could be called child abuse. Even though Naruto had already met the head of the Intelligence and Torture Division of Konohagakure he was still scared of him, but even more so he loved to prank him. Naruto gave the man one thing though, he was loyal to the village, if his treatment was anything to go by. He was worse than Anko, which was saying a lot.

Naruto sighed as he walked through the streets. It was the day of graduation and still people were still glaring at him, however soon he would be a ninja and there would be no point in him dealing with them, after all if they didn't want to accept him as a part of this village than he wouldn't accept them as a part of his life. He sighed as two grown men walked up in front of him, both with wooden clubs in their hands.

"Well look at this Razz, the little demon out here all alone."

"Yeah Jazz, what luck we have. It's time for his daily beating."

"Wait, Razz we shouldn't do that, after all he's about to find out who is own his ninja team, I mean look at that headband, he is a ninja now."

The two men smiled and raised their clubs.

"TO BAD WE DON'T CARE!"

They swung the clubs down with a lot of force behind the attacks; however Naruto channeled chakra into his arms and stopped the two clubs with his hands.

"You two, are annoying," Naruto said, before disappearing. He reappeared behind them, hands reaching into his kunai pouch. From it he produced nothing, severely shocking the two grown men, who then began to growl. They thought he was making fun of them. However, in all honesty, Naruto was just so tired he forgot his kunai and shuriken.

'_Ugh, now I have to beat them up personally_,' Naruto thought before knocking the clubs out of their hands with a quick palm strike to their pressure points. The man growled and charged, throwing wild punches, however Naruto dodged each and every one of them, compared to Kakashi and Anko those punches were moving at the speed of a snail, at least to Naruto' perception.

Naruto decided to end it then and there, as he was attracting a crowd. He grabbed Jazz's arm before slamming his knee into the man's gut. As the man held his stomach in pain Naruto jumped into the air and did a tornado kick right to hiss temple, knocking him out and throwing him to the ground. Razz growled before charging Naruto, with intent to kill, however Naruto ducker under the swing before making handseals.

"Fuinjutsu: Mahi Shiru (Sealing Technique: Paralysis Seal)."

Naruto slammed his palm into Razz's gut harshly, nearly penetrating the man's skin before a seal formed on the man's stomach. He tried to groan and shout out the boy, but found he couldn't soon after. Razz realized that his body was paralyzed.

Naruto looked at Razz. "The seal will deactivate whenever I feel it necessary, when I let up the chakra I'm sending into it, or if I get knocked unconscious or sleep. Good luck with doing nothing until then, oh and by the way it's hot outside, and if you get an itch, well it's gonna be a dick."

Naruto then walked away, still with that irritated and smug look on his face, along with his obvious sleepiness. He forgot to go get kunai and shuriken again. However, as he walked past the crowd that had come to watch the demon get slaughtered, and were surprised to see the demon brat had defeated two grown men right in front of their eyes, they all made a path for him, but it wasn't in respect, it was in fear. Naruto looked at the eyes of the people. They feared him now, badly. If anything, him defending himself just made him even worse in the eyes of the civilians, and Naruto could even see some shinobi in there. Naruto sighed.

There was no winning with these people.

XxX

"Naruto-kun," Hinata called. Naruto looked up at her and smiled as he entered the room. She was sitting next to Sasuke, which was surprising. He thought they weren't friends, however he could tell Sasuke was thankful, judging by the way every time he glanced towards the door he inched closer to Hinata. He was probably worried about his fangirls ruining his life again. Naruto decided to be nice and sat on the other side of him.

"Hey Hina-chan." Naruto said as he sat down. He looked at Sasuke. "You know, if you want to make it less troublesome for you to protect yourself from your fangirls just sit at the very edge of the rows. That way one person is all it takes to defend you, and even if they don't that's only one fangirl you have to deal with."

Sasuke scoffed. "Why would I run from them?"

Naruto sweat dropped. "Then why are you looking at the door in fear right now?"

Sasuke hit Naruto on the head, causing Hinata to giggle. While the two had just become friends recently they acted close, and personally Hinata hoped it staid that way. While she didn't really know Sasuke that much she knew that he was a lot like Naruto. It was just the one choice that both of them made that made them so different. The choice whether or not to be boisterous or the choice to be a loner. Of course, Sasuke was now reversing his choice.

The door to the room opened, revealing Sakura, Ino and the rest of Sasuke's horde of fangirls.

"The cavalry arrives," Naruto murmured, his classic prankster grin coming to his face. However Hinata glared at him sternly.

"Naruto-kun, d-don't be mean t-t-to S-Sasuke-san. He doesn't deserve to h-h-have those f-f-f-fangirls r-r-rape him."

Sasuke grabbed Hinata's arm, much to the rage of his fangirls, and shook it wildly.

"THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I'M SENDING KAMI A THANK YOU NOTE FOR SENDING THIS BEAUTIFUL PERSON INTO EXISTENCE!"

Naruto just sweat dropped at Sasuke's beyond strange behavior, however when he noticed Sasuke touching Hinata's arm he felt an unbridled anger well up in him, much to his confusion. He didn't mind it when people touched Hinata before, so why did he care now. There was no explanation for it, in his mind. To people who weren't as dense as a rock they would notice that Naruto was beginning to develop feelings for Hinata. And anybody who looked at Hinata and they heard the way she affectionately talked to him every single time, and how she showed no mercy, when she was usually very merciful, to the girls who bullied Naruto would know that she reciprocated those feelings.

Naruto's prankster grin still did not fade. Naruto was about to get out of his seat and move to a new one when Sasuke grabbed his arm, placing a kunai at his neck.

"I swear to Kami if you move I will kill you slowly and painfully."

Naruto grumbled at sat down, although when he looked around the room he saw all of Sasuke's fangirls glaring at him. Apparently they weren't happy with his cowardice, then again, it was either him or them, and in his mind he was not willing to give up his life for any of them, except maybe Sakura.

Sasuke smiled at that before he looked around the room along with Naruto. He was immediately freaked out. He felt like a lamb surrounded by starving, hungry wolves, and they were surrounding him. Fangirls like Itachi and Fugaku had said were the bane of every Uchiha's existence.

Hinata looked at Naruto pointedly, who just smiled at her.

"Naruto-kun…"

"Come on Hina-chan it was funny."

Hinata just sighed with a light blush on her cheeks. She never could stay mad at him, no matter what he had done.

All commotion ended when Iruka walked into the room.

"Okay kids first off I would like to say…" Naruto zoned Iruka out at that. It was quite obvious that Iruka was just spewing nonsense for his goodbye speech, even Sasuke and Hinata knew it. However, Naruto had a more detailed reason. He knew that some of these students would be sent back to the academy or kicked from the shinobi program all together. After all, they still had to go through the _real _Genin Exams.

After Iruka finished his speech and began talking about the teams and at that time Naruto zoned back in, although he had missed the first couple of teams, also known as the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth teams.

"Team 7," Iruka began. "Will be composed of Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sakura Haruno."

Naruto slammed his head on the wooden table and threw his fist into the air, confusing everyone in the room, while Hinata just had a depressed look in her eyes.

"What is it Naruto," Iruka asked.

"Well, the good things: I'm good, and begrudgingly so is Sasuke. Also we have Sakura-chan on our team. Bad things: Hina-chan isn't on my team." Hinata smiled at that. It meant that Naruto wanted to be on the same team as her.

Iruka just sighed. "You can't win them all Naruto. Oh yeah, your jonin sensei is Kakashi Hatake."

"LUCKY MOTHERFUCKER!"

Everyone again looked at Naruto.

"Something to say Naruto?" Iruka asked, his eye twitching.

Naruto shrunk into his seat. Iruka just sighed.

"What's so special about this Hatake guy anyway Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto looked at Sasuke like he was crazy. "You haven't heard of him?" Sasuke shook his head. "Well then, allow me to enlighten you. He's one of the top jonin in the village, but there are some quirks to him. He's lazy, he doesn't get serious a lot, and he's chronically late, I swear I think it's innate."

Sasuke looked at Naruto. "How do you know all of this?"

"He's my private sensei, but it looks like it won't be so private anymore now will it?"

Sasuke frowned. He was getting the same guy who trained Naruto. That wasn't bad, as Sasuke saw the benefits of it. If Naruto was able to catch up to him within a year of training under this guy he couldn't be to bad, in fact, he was probably very good, especially considering Naruto said he was one of the best jonin in the village. However, Sasuke still didn't exactly want someone who trained Naruto to train him. That way Naruto would know all of his techniques which would make it easier on Naruto to defeat him in spars. Then again, that was also vice versa. It would also prove to be a good challenge.

Sasuke just went back to paying attention to Iruka at that point.

"Team 8, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, and Hinata Hyuga, your jonin sensei will be Kurenai Yuhi."

While Kiba and Shino showed no reaction Hinata just faintly smiled. She could see the logic in the team after observing the boys skills earlier on.

"Team 9 is still in action from last year so moving on to Team 10. Its members are, Shikamaru Nara, Chouji Akimichi, and Ino Yamanaka, your jonin sensei is Asuma Sarutobi. Any questions?"

No one had any. "Well then I will leave you until your jonin senseis arrive," Iruka walked to the door and opened it before giving the genin-candidates one last thing.

"No matter what happens, know you have made me proud." And with that he shut the door.

As the genin prospects began to talk Sakura walked over to Naruto and Sasuke as Hinata left to go talk with her teammates. Sakura sat down where Hinata was sitting, right next to Sasuke, with an aura of superiority around her. It was obvious by her body language she was bragging to all of Sasuke's other fangirls that she had supposedly won the competition for his heart.

"So Sasuke-kun," she began. "Wanna go out on a date with me, you know to get to know each other better because we'll be on a team."

"Hn," Sasuke responded. As Sasuke made this noise Sakura looked down at the table, a sad expression in her eyes.

Naruto, still having feelings for the girl, tried to cheer her up. "We can go out on a date Sakura-chan."

Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you look at it, Hinata did not hear that. Otherwise blood and tears would have most definitely flied.

"NO WAY NARUTO-BAKA!" Sakura screeched and punched Naruto on his cheek. Sasuke looked at Naruto strangely as he stood back on his feet. Naruto just shook his head at Sasuke and sat down, blood trailing from his lip. Sasuke just sighed. He couldn't believe Naruto let Sakura hit him. He could have easily avoided that strike, but he took it anyway. Of course Sasuke knew that Naruto liked Sakura, but this was ridiculous. He needed to get over this crush; she obviously didn't like him back, although Sasuke did realize that part of that might be his fault.

Soon jonin started filtering into the room, taking their genin. However, the only ones that looked noteworthy were Team 8's jonin sensei, and Team 10's jonin sensei. Team 8's leader was Kurenai Yuhi. She was fairly tall and had light skin with a slender build. She had long, black, shoulder-length untamed hair, and very unique eyes that were red with an additional ring in them. She wore make-up consisting of red lipstick and purple eye shadow. She wore a red mesh armor blouse with only the right sleeve visible, and her entire outfit would remind someone of rose thorns. Her hands and upper thighs were also wrapped in bandages and she wore the Konoha forehead protector on her forehead with the standard blue shinobi sandals.

Team 10's sensei was Asuma Sarutobi. He was tall, with brown eyes and short, black spiky hair, and a beard. He wore the standard Konoha ninja uniform with the sleeves rolled up half way, the flak jacket, and regular shinobi sandals with the forehead protector on his forehead. Around his waist there was the Twelve Guardian Ninja sash that had the kanji for "Fire" marked on it, the sign of twelve ninja handpicked by the daimyo to guard him. Finally he wore a pair of black bangles and bandages wrapped around the arms of his sleeves.

Eventually Team 7 was the last team in the room.

"WHERE IS HE!?" Sakura screeched loudly. Sasuke and Naruto covered their ears before looking at Sakura with slight annoyance.

"I told you Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei is late for anything other than an A or S-rank mission by at least two hours," Naruto said, but Sakura just ignored him.

"Err; I'll kill him, HOW DARE HE BE LATE!"

Sasuke just groaned. She was overreacting but she was also right. How could a jonin that was supposed to be the best of the best be two hours late to EVERYTHING other than A or S-ranked missions. It made no sense. It made Sasuke wonder how Kakashi even got his position as one of the best jonin in the village.

Their cries were answered soon after as a man walked into the room, Kakashi.

"Yo," Kakashi said, however he was interrupted with a, "YOUR LATE!" by Sakura. Needless to say Kakashi just looked at her and yawned, not really caring what she said.

"Let's see, other than Naruto my first impression of you is…I hate you."

Sasuke's eye twitched, Naruto smiled, and Sakura face planted. She stood preparing to yell at Kakashi, but she saw him walking out the door.

"Meet me on the roof of the academy as soon as possible, and by that I mean in five minutes, also known as two minutes. Go." Kakashi then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Cheeky bastard," Sasuke muttered under his breath as he stood and walked out the room, followed by Naruto and Sakura.

As per Kakashi's promise he was at the academy rooftop in two minutes, which rather surprised Naruto as he thought he would be two hours late, again. It wasn't abnormal. As Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto sat down on the steps in front of Kakashi he began to speak.

"Hey, I'm Kakashi Hatake. Now, let's get straight to the point shall we. Introduce yourselves, like hopes, dreams, likes, dislikes, stuff like that."

"Can you go first, as an example?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi looked at her strangely. '_I chose her because she was the top of the class in academics, even though I also wanted to pick Hinata. Still, Sakura would be a better match for Sasuke and Naruto in a fight than Hinata, yet she needs an example to understand how to do something this simple_?'

"Okay, I guess I'll go. I'm Kakashi Hatake. I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes… My dreams for the future… Hmm… As for my hobbies… I have lots of hobbies…"

Naruto smiled as Sakura put her head down, realizing that all he did was tell them his name. However, Naruto was going to rain on Kakashi's parade.

"His name is Kakashi Hatake. He likes reading his smut, salt-broiled saury and miso soup with eggplant. He dislikes anything fried or sweet, and people who say his smut is bad. He has taken 197 D-rank missions, 190-C-rank missions, 414 B-rank missions, 298 A-rank missions, and 42 S-rank missions. His hobby is reading his smut. And I don't know his dreams."

Kakashi growled at Naruto. "I shouldn't have told you that."

Naruto just smiled. Kakashi sighed and pointed to Sakura.

"You first."

"My name is Sakura Haruno. I like," she giggled and looked at Sasuke. "I mean who I like." She giggled again. "My dreams," she blushed absurdly and looked at Sasuke again.

'_Kami save me_,' Sasuke thought.

'_Lucky,_' Naruto thought.

"As for your dislikes…" Kakashi said.

"INO-PIG AND NARUTO-BAKA!"

"I see," Kakashi said slowly, looking at her strangely, before pointing towards Sasuke. "You."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and kill a certain someone."

'_So cool_,' Sakura thought.

"Teme," Naruto mumbled. Sakura was about to hit him before Sasuke muttered, "Dobe," under his breath. The two butted heads, lightning shooting between their eyes.

"You wanna say that again!" they shouted, a hair's length from going to blows. Kakashi just sighed and pushed them apart.

"Break it up. Now, you Naruto."

"But you know me already."

"They don't."

"Sasuke does."

"NARUTO!"

Naruto laughed. "Fine. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen, training, and my precious people. I hate the three minutes it takes to get ramen ready and arrogant pricks. Finally I have two dreams. The first is to become the greatest Hokage that way people will look at me like I'm somebody, somebody important. And the last dream is to start a family of my own…" Naruto trailed off at that, reminded of the fact that he had neither mother nor father.

Kakashi frowned. If it wasn't an S-rank secret he would have told Naruto who his parents were, and also told him about the Kyuubi.

"Well then, meet me at training ground 7 tomorrow morning at ten. Also, don't eat breakfast; it'll just make it worse."

Kakashi then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto smiled. Tomorrow was the day, the day he would see if he was truly worthy of becoming a genin.

* * *

I forced this chapter, so if it's horrid, I apologize and that's why. Also, the reason I did not include the test was because I plan on making it a VERY long and hard fought test. Yeah, I didn't want to write this chapter. That's it, bye.


	8. Chapter 8

**DrunkenBunny:**Did I succeed?

**Spartan000-B TheUnknownWarrior:**Well first, you sir, have an awesome name. Just had to point that out. Secondly, avoid the Earl comes from a show I used to watch called D. Gray Man. The main antagonist is the Millennium Earl, and as I wanted a catchphrase, that was born. Probably because the Akuma part of my name also comes from that show, as they are the Earls army.

**I own Nothing.**

**The Challenges of Working Together**

Naruto yawned as he awoke. It was ten thirty, or at least that's what the clock said. He hoped out of bed without any care that he would be late for the meeting he had today. He sluggishly got ready before checking over his weapons, fully awake now.

"Perfect," Naruto said as he put his shuriken, kunai, and paper bombs inside his pouch. He then sealed the rest of them into a scroll that he slung around his waist. He would have sealed them onto his clothes or body, but he knew that Kakashi was well versed in fuinjutsu, so if he noticed that Naruto had done so he could cause problems with the seals. After all, Kakashi was year's worth of experience ahead of him when it came to the skill, no matter how talented Naruto was in it.

Naruto left his house, and headed over to Ichiraku's to get some food for later. After all, sealed food stayed fresh as long as it wasn't in there for over a week. This would only be a day so it was fine. Still, Naruto wasn't going to eat, as Kakashi had told his team not to. He assumed the test Kakashi was going to give them was about how to fight under difficult situations like starvation. Or he could have them do an eating contest, as Kakashi may be to lazy to even bother fighting them; he certainly had been that lazy when training Naruto.

Naruto walked into the shop with a smile on his face. "Hey, old man, Ayame!"

Teuchi came walking out from behind the shop, his eyes twitching.

"Whoever just called me-oh? Hello Naruto."

Naruto smiled at the middle-aged man. Teuchi had blackish-gray hair and wore a white robe with a white chef's hat on his head.

"Hey Naruto what can I do for you?"

"Five bowls of miso ramen please, I'm gonna need it."

Teuchi nodded and got to work on making the food while a young, teenage girl walked out from the back to check on her father.

"Father, I heard a brats obnoxious voice and I hade to come and save you from the big bad Naruto," the girl teased.

The girl was slender, with long brown hair and eyes, with fair skin. She wore a white robe with the sleeves folded, and a dark blue apron with ribbon ties at the top and a bright white bandanna.

"Ayame-neechan, that was mean," Naruto mumbled, poking his fingers together with a glum expression.

Ayame just chuckled and pattered Naruto's head rather affectionately. "You know I don't mean it," she said. Naruto responded with a rather boisterous, "I know Nee-chan," and settled for double checking his tools as he waited on his food. Ayame watched him as he did so, looking at him curiously.

"Why are you doing that Naruto-kun?"

"Kakashi-sensei is my jonin sensei. I learnt it yesterday. He said to meet us at training ground seven, and I personally think it is going to involve fighting, plus a ninja should never be without his tools."

Ayame smiled at Naruto, clear pride on her face.

"Very true, Naruto-kun."

"Here ya go brat," Teuchi said setting down the five bowls of ramen. Naruto quickly sealed them into the massive scroll on his back and smiled at Teuchi. "Thanks jiji. I'll be heading off now."

"NOT WITHOUT PAYING YOU DAMN BRAT!"

"Come on give me a freebee I am your best customer."

"And best customers have to pay too," Teuchi said snatching the required money from Naruto.

"Stingy," Naruto mumbled, however Teuchi managed to hear it.

"No ramen for the rest of the day."

"BLASPHOMOUS!"

XxX

Naruto grumbled as he walked up to Sasuke, who was leaning against a tree, and Sakura, who was, as usual, fawning over Sasuke.

"So, Sasuke-kun, wanna go out on a date, you know since Kakashi-sensei and Naruto-baka are late?"

"Of course I'd be late, after all, Kakashi-sensei is two hours late to everything, which you two apparently forgot," Naruto said as he walked up to his teammates.

"Tch, I didn't forget dobe, I just had nothing better to do."

"Sure Sasuke, whatever helps you sleep at night," Naruto teased, however Sasuke didn't take well to this and growled at Naruto.

"Don't insult Sasuke-kun, Naruto-baka!"

Naruto looked at Sakura with sadness and nodded and just walked away towards another tree.

'_Damn it Sakura. Apparently she doesn't seem to realize Naruto and I are friends and do this all the damn time. Still, I need to plan on how to beat Kakashi. She was slightly helpful, for once in her life_.' Sasuke thought as he closed his eyes and continued to be in deep thought.

His thoughts were interrupted however as Kakashi appeared in front of them all, with an eye smile.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura screeched.

"Sorry, but a black cat crossed my path so I decided to take the long way around."

"560," Naruto mumbled under his breath.

Kakashi sweat dropped. '_He's still counting how many times I give the same excuses? How has he not gotten confused yet!?_'

"Anyways, you are all here, meaning we don't have to wait on anyone-" Kakashi paused, expecting an outburst. None came, surprisingly. "-so, we will begin your survival test now."

"Survival test," Sakura repeated. "We took those in the academy."

"Not to the level I will be giving you," Kakashi said. "You see, the academy was just to figure out which students had the potential to be ninja. However, this is the test to see who deserve to be ninja. Each jonin has their own right to choose how they desire to test their potential genin and I have chosen the survival test. Basically all you have to do is get these two bells from me," Kakashi said, pointing to the bells attached to his waist.

"Doesn't seem too hard," Sakura said.

"He's a jonin Sakura-chan," Naruto said.

"I know that Naruto-baka!"

Kakashi sighed. "Enough. The point is, I will be defending these bells, and your objective is to get them. You have my permission to do anything necessary to get the bells, including lethal force. You have until six, which is six hours. I hope you make use of those hours. You must have a bell to pass this test. If you do not you will be tied to those wooden stumps and have failed the test. Now, before we begin any questions?"

"When you say lethal force, we're completely allowed to kill you right? No consequences," Naruto asked.

"Yes, but why would you want to kill me Naruto? I'm your precious sensei."

"Years of lazy training can do that to a person," Naruto chuckled darkly.

Kakashi stepped back, officially afraid of his blonde student. '_He acts like Kushina. And that is not necessarily a complement_,' Kakashi thought, slowly taking more steps away from his student.

"Wait, sensei, there are only two bells, which means at least one of us will fail." Sakura said.

Kakashi nodded. "Correct Sakura. Anything else?"

Sakura looked surprised. "Did you forget one while leaving your house?"

"No."

"But-"

"Sakura he means even we are enemies in this test," Sasuke said, quite annoyed with the entire explaining thing. He just wanted to start, to test his power against a jonin.

"What's the percentage of passing this test," Naruto asked, curious as it seemed as people had taken this test before. It was to well thought out for Kakashi. After all, genius he may be he was also a lazy bum.

"Thirty-three percent, of passing."

'_The odds are that highly stacked against our favor_,' Sakura thought.

'_This will be easier than I thought_,' Naruto thought. '_I thought it was like a twenty percent chance of failing._'

"Last question. Why did you tell us not to eat?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi eye-smiled, one that made Naruto proud. After all, it was a prankster smile. "So it would be more difficult for you."

Sakura's eye twitched, while Sasuke did nothing, although Naruto was smiling and frowning at the same time, which resulted in a weird look on his face.

Everyone was silent for a moment, officially ending the questioning session.

"Well then, if there are no more questions. Begin."

The three students disappeared.

XxX

"Well they've got the hiding part of a ninja down," Kakashi said as he walked around the training ground. While he knew where they were hiding to your average genin they would be invisible. Kakashi sighed. He had to draw them out somehow. The question was how. He could just reveal the he knew where they where, but that would be no fun, after all it would basically be rubbing the fact that he was stronger and better than them in every way, shape, and form in their face. While he was lazy he did not like to crush people's spirits, if they were from his village anyway.

His thoughts were interrupted as three shuriken sprang from Naruto's location.

'_Ever the impatient one_," Kakashi thought. '_I'll show off a bit_.' Kakashi dodged the kunai all while digging into his supply pouch. From it he drew…a book. It was one of his porn novels, the Icha-Icha series.

Naruto's eye twitched as he saw the book. '_Is he mocking me!?_'

Naruto growled and formed the familiar cross handsign. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)!" He roared.

Fifteen clones sprang to life around him. Naruto pointed to three locations and his clones spread out in groups of five to those specific locations. Naruto however, went to a different location. He went towards Kakashi.

"Foolish Naruto," Kakashi said as Naruto charged him, kunai in hand.

Naruto just smiled and drew smoke pellets from his kunai pouch. He threw them at Kakashi who jumped away, although now there was a large purple cloud of smoke concealing the other from view. Naruto used this to wrap an explosive tag around his kunai. He then drew another kunai, without an explosive tag wrapped around it, and threw them both at Kakashi, or at least where he saw him land.

Kakashi was indeed in the same place, and when he saw the two kunai come flying through the smoke cloud he frowned. He would have expected something stealthier from Naruto. Then again, he still remembered somewhere Naruto's clones were around, plotting his demise.

Kakashi dodged the kunai, noticing the explosive tag on the first one almost too late. He barely finished the handseals for Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu (Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique) before the explosive tag lit and exploded.

As the smoke created by the explosion cleared Naruto saw no trace of Kakashi, just a small crater and rocks blown everywhere.

"Where is he," Naruto pondered as he looked around. However, his question was soon answered as his ankle was grabbed. Naruto looked down at the hand, to see part of Kakashi's arm and his hand sticking out of the ground, wrapped around Naruto's ankle.

"Oh fuck me," Naruto mumbled.

"Language Naruto," he barely heard Kakashi say before he was dragged underground. As Kakashi popped out from underground he looked at Naruto, whose head was the only thing visible, as the rest of his body was trapped underground.

"One down," Kakashi said and walked away.

As Kakashi slipped into nearby bushes Naruto smiled and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

XxX

'_Look at Naruto, thinking he's so cool. He got defeated by Kakashi-sensei like he was nothing. Sasuke-kun would obviously beat Naruto-baka in a real fight_.' Sakura thought.

Sakura stood and began to search around for Sasuke, determined to find the so-called love of her life and partner up with him to take down Kakashi. However, what she found was not what she was expecting.

"S-Sakura, help m-me," said a wounded Sasuke. There were senbon, kunai, and shuriken sticking out of him at all angles, and he was bleeding profusely with one eye swollen shut.

"S-S-Sasuke-kun," Sakura stuttered out, horrified at the sight.

"S-S-Sakura."

Sakura screamed and fainted.

Kakashi canceled the genjutsu and walked over to Sakura, disappointment written all over his face. '_Maybe I should have chosen Hinata_.' He thought, as he looked at her. '_That was one of the most basic genjutsu. To be caught in something like that, even though she is just a genin, it's ridiculous. Her low reserves allow her to be a genjutsu mistress, but without being able to detect it she would just be a liability. I need to work with her on that, if they pass_.'

As Kakashi took off into the trees to look for Sasuke he thought on it. '_These guys were called the ideal team, but they don't work together at all. They're horrid at it. The only two I think could work together are begrudgingly Sasuke and Naruto, and that's if you get rid of their rivalry. Their exactly like me and Obito. This is gonna be troublesome. I don't wanna fail sensei's kid, but I will if I have to_.'

Kakashi landed on the ground as five shuriken flew by and into him, causing him to tip over. As Kakashi hit the ground he transformed into wooden logs revealing he had used the substitution jutsu.

Sasuke cursed, sprinting away at full speed, sending chakra blasts into his feet to go faster. His attack had failed, Kakashi had avoided it and now knew where he was, and was no doubt chasing after him. Sasuke cursed as once he appeared through a clearing he was hit with a punch to his side, sending him sprawling away and into an even more visible area.

Sasuke stood to see Kakashi rushing towards him, boredom in his eyes.

"I'm on another level compared to those two; don't think you can beat me, WITH THAT LOOK IN YOUR EYE!" Sasuke roared as he charged.

Sasuke drew a kunai attempting to slash Kakashi, however the man jumped over the strike and lashed out with a dual kick to the head, slamming Sasuke's head on the ground.

'_Maybe that was a bit to ruff_.'

As Sasuke shakily stood Naruto appeared flying through handseals and racing towards Kakashi. "Fuinjutsu: Mahi Shiru (Sealing Technique: Paralysis Seal)."

Kakashi smirked and dodged the jutsu, slamming his knee into Naruto's gut. As Naruto held his stomach Kakashi slammed his elbow into Naruto's head before kicking him in the chest. Naruto was sent sprawling as Sasuke stood and charged Kakashi. Kakashi jogged backwards, fending off Sasuke's attacks before Naruto quickly joined Sasuke in his barrage, although Kakashi still blocked their strikes.

Naruto jumped in midair, making handsigns. "Suiton: Teppodama (Water Release: Gunshot)!"

Naruto belched out a bullet of condensed water; however the attack hit Sasuke instead, soaking the Uchiha, as Kakashi swung him into the attack. Sasuke growled at Naruto who waved his hands in apology.

"Sorry."

"Why you little-"

"Um," Kakashi said.

Sasuke forgot all about Naruto continuing his assault on Kakashi, however Naruto did not join Sasuke, preferring to plan.

'_He's stronger, faster, and more experienced than we are, not to mention smarter. We're all around beaten by him. There's no way we can win this fight. But we have to. I refuse to lose_.'

Naruto threw some shuriken before making the cross handseal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)!"

Four clones appeared next to Naruto, and as they charged, Naruto charged behind them in a zigzag pattern. Kakashi groaned as he was grabbed by a Naruto clone from behind. Sasuke smirked at that, and launched a punch at Kakashi; however Kakashi switched places with a clone that was charging, causing that clone to disappear. Kakashi than launched three shuriken at the other three clones that had changed trajectory, easily defeating them before kicking Naruto in the chin.

Kakashi then jumped over an attack from Sasuke and landed behind him, back kicking him into a tree. The two remaining clones charged Kakashi however he took them down quickly before turning around. As he did so he noticed Naruto had disappeared and Sasuke was charging him. Kakashi was about to charge back but decided to wait on Sasuke. Kakashi sweat dropped as Sasuke came in with a direct punch.

'_Foolhardy_.'

However, as soon as Kakashi caught the punch Sasuke twisted trying to flip the man over. It would have worked, had Kakashi not have as much experience as he did. As Sasuke flipped him he grabbed Sasuke's other arm and threw Sasuke, turning himself upright in midair. As Kakashi landed on his feet Sasuke landed on his head, spinning around on the ground. Sasuke growled and stood preparing to reengage Kakashi, however as fifteen clones of Naruto, five from each location Naruto had sent them to earlier, appeared boxing Kakashi in a triangle shape, Naruto came down and grabbed Sasuke, sprinting away before the Uchiha did anything foolish.

"Put me down Naruto!" Sasuke hissed. Naruto complied, putting Sasuke down. However, Sasuke noticed that an unconscious Sakura was also here. They were at a large tree in the center of the training grounds.

"Why did you do that!?" Sasuke demanded. Naruto looked at Sasuke with an incredulous look.

"You really thought you could take him?"

"I did better than you."

"I wasn't going all out."

"Neither was I!"

Naruto just groaned and rubbed his forehead.

"Look Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei is a jonin; he won't be defeated by three genin, no matter how skilled they may be. Even f they are more skilled his experience more than makes up for it, and he hasn't reached the age when even experience can't help you. Face it, Kakashi is to good for us to beat, even if we combined our efforts."

"What are you getting at," Sasuke asked, now intrigued.

"While it may be true that we can't beat him, even if you, Sakura, and I worked together, we have a better chance of beating him if we do work together. Therefore, I request a truce, at least until we get the bells."

"Humph. I see no point in this."

Naruto growled. "Sasuke, are you an idiot!? WE CAN'T BEAT KAKASHI-SENSEI WITHOUT TEAMMING UP!"

Sasuke growled and slammed his foot on the ground. "Who do you think you are Naruto? I can do this!"

"I'm your friend. And as your friend I'm requesting that you listen to me!"

Sasuke growled until a hand pushed him away from Naruto. It was Sakura.

"As much as I hate to say it he's right Sasuke-kun. Our best bet is to team up."

Sasuke growled and looked away, grumbling a begrudged, "Fine."

"Well that was entertaining."

The three candidates looked upwards to see Kakashi standing on a nearby tree. "Are you ready?"

"Yes," Naruto said and threw three shuriken at Kakashi. Kakashi dodged the shuriken; however Sasuke jumped up towards him, engaging in a midair spar. Obviously, Kakashi won, throwing Sasuke to the ground; however as Naruto quickly made a clone that cushioned his fall before throwing even more weapons at Kakashi. Kakashi weaved through the hail of weapons, before he heard something whistling. He turned to see even more weapons coming at him, courtesy of Sakura. He groaned and jumped over them, avoiding the attack. Kakashi landed nearby.

"Now Sasuke!"

Naruto and Sasuke weaved through handseals, preparing to unleash fury onto Kakashi.

'_Impossible, they can't can they!?_'

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)!"

"Fuuton: Kūki no Uzu (Wind Release: Air Vortex)!"

The Katon and Fuuton jutsu combined to create a giant withering vortex of fire.

"A collaboration jutsu!" Kakashi roared, quickly making handseals.

Sakura smiled at Sasuke's and Naruto's work before throwing more weapons at Kakashi. She wouldn't let him get away, even if the heat was very harsh.

As the jutsu ended and Kakashi was nowhere to be seen Sasuke and Naruto began to think that they had disintegrated him, only to be pinned to the ground a moment later a kunai at each of their necks.

"Sakura, give me all the information you know on the hidden leaf or I kill the Sasuke and Naruto."

Sakura stood their frozen. She had no idea what to do. How could she? She had the choice of either betraying her village or letting two people die. It was an impossible choice.

Kakashi got off of Naruto and Sasuke soon after that, allowing them to stretch and prepare to attack again.

"Calm down, the test is over."

Naruto stood up, and looked at the sun, realizing that according to the sun the test was indeed over.

"We failed."

"No you didn't."

Naruto looked at Kakashi curiously. "But we didn't get the bells."

"You didn't have to get the bells to pass. Allow me to explain. This test is not meant to see if you can get the bells, in fact, none of you have the ability to get the bells as you are now. This test was meant to see if you had the potential to work together."

"What do you mean," Sasuke asked, confused.

"This test was to see if you three could work together to defeat an adversary. It was about teamwork. The core to any ninja squad is teamwork, meaning if you don't have that you will die, early on in your mission. However, if you do an A-rank mission can be as easy as a B-rank mission. Teamwork is key to any shinobi squad. I wouldn't go as far to say as it's more important than individual skills, but it is very important. You all have individual skills. Naruto is great at close combat and ninjutsu, Sasuke is also great with ninjutsu and close combat, along with mediocre analytical skills, while Sakura has amazing analytical skills, has potential in the genjutsu and medical fields, and is great at making up strategies. If you combined this you would be a fearsome team, however if you have no teamwork any jonin could easily dispatch of you."

"Okay, but what about the thing you just did to Sakura-chan," Naruto asked.

Kakashi smiled. "That was my final test. In the ninja world you may run into situations like that, when you either must betray your village or leave your allies to die. I realize that it is a tough decision and there is no right answer, but remember this: In the ninja world, those who break the rules are trash, that's true, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash."

Naruto nodded, fully accepting the words. Sasuke just gave his usual, "Hn," and Sakura nodded.

"Good. Now that you get that, let's get going. Our first mission is tomorrow."


	9. Chapter 9

**Missions**

Naruto groaned as another ball slammed into his face. They were currently doing a teamwork exercise, throwing a ball back and forth at each other, of course this being only Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura. However, there was one problem with this exercise, they were blindfolded.

Naruto groaned. "Oh my Kami. This is ridiculous, do we have to keep doing this Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes, Naruto. Teamwork can prove the difference between life and death on the battle, therefore until I deem you all successful in this we will not be doing any sort of jutsu training, or weapons making, at least, not until we reach a good enough level of teamwork," Kakashi responded.

Naruto groaned even more, throwing the ball to where he remembered Sakura to be.

"Sakura-chan, catch."

Sakura nodded and put her hands out. She felt the ball impact on her hands, and clasped down on it, catching it. She smiled as she found herself to be successful.

"Sasuke-kun, catch the ball."

She threw it, gently, too gently. Kakashi sighed. He could understand her if she wanted to make sure Sasuke could catch the ball, but she was throwing it too gently for it to even reach Sasuke. It also meant that Sasuke wouldn't even get to touch the ball before it reached the ground. Kakashi then decided now was the time to up the challenge. He shot forward, grabbing the ball and twisting it in midair; he then fired it directly at Naruto, who was not paying attention as Sakura had not called his name.

As the ball flew towards Naruto there was one thing that allowed him to realize the ball was coming towards him. The speed. The ball was letting out a whistling sound, allowing him to realize the ball was coming towards him, however it mattered not. Even though his hands were up he didn't have enough strength to catch the ball and was sent flying backwards, rubber burning his hands. However, before he hit a nearby tree he channeled chakra into his arms and legs as he slammed his feet into the ground. By doing so he managed to maintain his balance and stop the power behind the blow, although his hands were burning.

Naruto dropped the ball and ripped off the blindfold, glaring at Kakashi with an unearthly rage.

"What the hell!? Sakura-chan doesn't have the power to do that, what did you do Kakashi-sensei!"

Sasuke took off his blindfold, confused, as did Sakura.

"Dobe, what are you talking about," Sasuke asked. "And why didn't the ball go to me?"

Naruto frowned as he glared at Kakashi who was eye-smiling. "Well," Kakashi began. "A person, who shall not be named, did not throw the ball hard enough; therefore I decided to improve the speed of the ball. I just lost control over it a bit," Kakashi said, eye-smiling innocently.

Naruto growled at him, reading the lie that was expressed all over his face. However, Kakashi didn't seem to care.

"Naruto, Sasuke, go to the Hokage tower. Sakura, stay here, I have something I want to talk to you about."

Naruto and Sasuke nodded, taking off in two separate bursts of speed, looking like blurs to the untrained eye, however to a person of Kakashi's caliber they would think they were moving in slow motion. Along with the fact that anyone could tell they were racing each other there.

"Kakashi-sensei, you wanted to talk to me," Sakura asked, looking at Kakashi with wonder.

"Yes, Sakura, I think you need to give up on Sasuke," Kakashi said.

Sakura immediately glared at Kakashi. "Why, because you think I'm not good enough?"

"No Sakura, it's not that. From what I can tell from what Naruto has told me about him, even though he himself hasn't known Sasuke for a long time, plus my own personal experiences on the boy he isn't the type to fall for a girl over looks. In fact, I highly doubt he cares about those. Sakura, for your age you are attractive, but Sasuke doesn't look for attractiveness, he looks for kunoichi who train and are strong, along with ones that aren't afraid to defy what he thinks. At least, that's what I think. You don't have to take my word for it, but if you actually trained I bet Sasuke would think better of you. Also, even if he doesn't, you're always ignoring Naruto, when he truly does care about you that will be all."

Sakura's face went through a series of emotions at hearing that. The first was, of course, outrage, then curiosity, then back to outrage, before landing on a confused look.

"Let's head to the Hokage tower now," Kakashi said and started walking from the training ground. Sakura followed, deep in thought, and at a much slower pace than Kakashi.

'_Am I really doing something wrong? Am I driving Sasuke-kun and, heck, even Naruto-baka away from me_?'

XxX

"Is everyone in position," Kakashi asked over a headset. The responses came in immediately.

"Yes, sensei, can we go now," the three asked, all with annoyed expressions on their face. They had done this mission three times already, mainly as the damn cat had escaped as soon as it was brought back to the tower, each and every time. And people thought jonin were useful, yet they were too lazy to stop the damn cat.

"Then go."

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke all sprang from their hiding places like an eagle descending on it's pray. The four-legged creature hissed and jumped away from them; however, with two quick bursts of chakra-enhanced sprints, Sasuke and Naruto caught it, Naruto cutting off the path in front of it, and Sasuke behind it. The creature sprang towards the left; however Sakura appeared through foliage, arms outstretched. She clasped her hands together, just as the creature fell, avoiding the hands, however Naruto was prepared. With a chakra-enhanced leap he fell onto the figure with a loud, 'oomph.'

Naruto slithered his arms under his stomach, grabbing a furry creature before lifting it into the air, a defeated look on its face.

"Caught," Naruto said as he looked at the thing. He was seriously debating skinning the cat already. He had come to hate the furry creature.

"Has it been identified by the ribbon?"

"WE'VE BEEN CHASING IT THE ENTIRE DAMN DAY, I KNOW WHAT IT FUCKING LOOKS LIKE SENSEI! But ribbon confirmed," Naruto roared.

Kakashi just cringed at the loud voice before nodding. "Head back to the Hokage tower."

XxX

"Oh, my baby," said a rather…large lady. She was hugging the cat very tightly, squeezing the life out of it.

"Here is your money, times three for the trouble," the woman said as she placed the money on the desk. The Hokage nodded kindly as the woman left the room, only to receive piercing glares from the three genin.

"What," Sarutobi asked.

"That blasted cat, Tora or whatever, better, and I mean BETTER, count as three D-rank missions," the genin hissed. "If it doesn't…" the let the sentence drag out, each one drawing a kunai from their pouches.

"Let's just say we'll be having cat for dinner."

Sarutobi gulped. He made a mental classification to wait a LONG time before giving Team 7 the, 'Capture Tora,' mission, again. With that done he smiled sagely.

"Yes, that will count as three missions, here is your share," the Hokage said, handing out the money. Naruto took his money with greed in his eyes, as did Sakura, however Sasuke just took it calmly, after all, he had an entire bank filled with money because of his clan. Compared to that, this was poor people cash, even though he didn't deny the more money the better. Kakashi just smiled and took his money. While he wouldn't gain any significant change in his funds, this was equal to the amount of a C-rank mission. Of course, there would be more if the village didn't take part of the cash to keep the economy running smoothly.

"Any other missions for my squad Hokage-sama," Kakashi asked.

The Hokage nodded. "Cleaning the Inuzuka kennels, painting old George's fence, picking weeds from Ms. Rusk's garden, or carrying the groceries of Ms. Ural."

Kakashi smiled and began to think on which one to accept. Since this was going to be marked as three missions and his goal was four missions per day, as in one week that would mean he had reached the requirement for the Chunin Exams, 20 D-rank missions. Then, he could focus on training his team wholeheartedly for the exams, with a couple of missions mixed in here or there.

"No," Naruto said. "Unless we do something worthy of my caliber I refuse to take any more missions for the rest of the day."

Kakashi sighed and ignored what Naruto thought, still intent on choosing a mission.

"We'll take the painting mission, Hokage-sama."

Naruto groaned as Sarutobi nodded.

"Get to it then, Kakashi."

XxX

It had been multiple weeks since Team 7 became official, and it had been a hectic couple of days. The team had upped their teamwork exercises, with all of them throwing it at each other without calling out the others names, along with Kakashi interfering once-in-awhile to make it even more difficult for the genin.

However, that was unimportant as Naruto was heading over to Hinata's place. Naruto walked up to the gate guards, who despite not liking him let him in per Hiashi's orders. The orders that Hiashi would persuade the boy to work for him, so he would be allowed on the grounds at all times, however what Hiashi did not know was that the Hyuga elders disagreed with this decision, however they had yet to stop it, realizing it's benefits.

"Hina-chan!" Naruto called as she took a break from sparing with Hanabi.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said, smiling at Naruto.

"Hey Hina-chan, I was wondering if we could spar."

"Onii-chan," Hanabi called latching onto Naruto's leg. You see, while it had taken a while, Naruto had warmed up to Hanabi, and had become a sort of big brother figure in her eyes.

"Hey, monsoon-chan (Monsoon)," Naruto said, looking at Hanabi.

Hanabi's cheeks inflated. "I said don't call me that, Onii-chan," Hanabi said, lightly pounding on his leg.

Naruto just laughed and pattered Hanabi's head, whispering, "Sorry, Hanabi-chan."

A cough interrupted the touching moment. Naruto turned to see Hiashi looking at him, Neji right behind him.

"Hiashi-sama. Neji," Naruto said.

"Naruto-san," Hiashi said.

"Naruto," Neji said.

The two sisters went quiet as they looked at the three. Anyone could feel how tense each of them were, Naruto and Neji more so. Ever since taking a brief training session with Tenten's team Naruto had disliked Neji. He tried to put both Lee's and his own dreams down, and crush them, saying they weren't good enough. Naruto had taken offence to that and fought Neji. Needless to say he lost, however ever since that day Naruto had trained harder to beat Neji. He had become his secondary rival of sorts.

"So Naruto-san, why have you come today," Hiashi asked.

"I came to spar with Hina-chan. I wanted to see how much more she improved since she became a ninja," Naruto responded immediately. Hiashi nodded at this, but still made the familiar, "Tsk," sound an adult made when something bad happened.

"I'm afraid Hinata cannot do that. However, Neji would be more than happy to do so."

"If I may, Hiashi-sama, but why is Hina-chan unable to do so?"

Hiashi growled mentally. He honestly had just lied to see if Naruto would fight Neji again, however the boy had avoided it, whether or not he knew it.

"Because, she is training Hanabi. While one of them will not become the heiress to the clan both of them must be strong, therefore they are training."

Hiashi couldn't hold back the small smirk. He had cleverly avoided Naruto's unconscious ploy.

"Okay then, I'll spar with Neji, no jutsu as usual right," Naruto asked.

Hiashi nodded as Neji walked down towards the duo and Hinata lead Hanabi away. However, one last glance from both of them at Naruto let him know they were worried about him.

"Don't worry Hina-chan, Hanabi-chan, I got this." Naruto said as he dropped into his stance.

In all honesty though, he wasn't sure if he could beat Neji. The teen had much more practice than him in both taijutsu and being a ninja; therefore the odds were heavily against his favor. He would have to quite literally pull a victory out of his ass to win this one.

"Begin," Hiashi said.

Neji moved quickly, shooting out a palm aimed directly for Naruto's stomach, however Naruto avoided the blow, albeit barely, before launching a punch at Neji. Neji pushed the blow out of the way before raising his hand and shooting it forward. Naruto grabbed the hand as it made contact with his body, pushing through the pain and pushing out another punch.

It made contact.

It slammed right into Neji's face, sending him stumbling backwards. As Neji stood up again, blood dripping from his nose Hiashi called the match off.

"Naruto-san, Neji, stop fighting."

Both boys dropped to the ground as he said that, although Neji stood up almost as soon as his knees touched the ground.

Hiashi walked over to Naruto, a fake concerned look on his face. He activated his Byakugan (All Seeing White Eye), and looked at Naruto's chakra system. He was immediately surprised. Naruto's chakra reserves were huge, even larger than his or the Hokages. His entire chakra pathway was shining in a bright blue hue, and it was actually scaring Hiashi. If the boy had this much chakra if he wasn't on their side he could be a major threat. He could quite literally fire jutsu off for days and never run out of chakra. Sure he grow tired as the days dragged on, but since the boy knew no high-costing jutsu, to Hiashi's knowledge, other than the Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone Technique), which admittedly didn't drain Naruto of to much chakra, he would be hard for Neji to actually beat.

"Your chakra system is fine; however Neji that attack was to close to Naruto's chakra coils. Any closer and without the Byakugan activated you may have killed him. You must start to know where the tenketsu are, as your Byakugan was off, which could have led to Naruto-san's death. Go study."

Neji nodded, mumbling out a, "I apologize Hiashi-sama," and walked away. Hiashi then looked at Naruto.

"Be more careful. Now, go do what you were going to do with Hinata," Hiashi said.

With that he stood up. He had to be more careful from here on out. He had slowly but surely been making the boy more comfortable around him, as the only reason Naruto was so tense earlier was because Neji was there, however that would matter not if the boy kept his anger towards Neji. Hiashi had to make those to friends to strength Naruto's bond with the Hyuga's.

It would prove to be fatal if he didn't.

* * *

Hey guy's it's Kuma Akuma. First off I want to say this chapter is kinda short because it's a filler chapter. Secondly, I want to say sorry if there was no clear plot in this chapter, but I just wasn't feeling it, I forced this one out. Also, to those of you who sent in OC's, trust me they will be used, I haven't really diverged from plot yet, but they will be. Also, the major plot divergences will not really be happening until after the Chunin Exams, sorry. But, I already have one OC that will be coming in soon. Who created it I will not say, as even they don't know there's will be included, but hey. See you guys later, and avoid the Earl.


	10. Chapter 10

**Before I begin I would like to say you are all going to love this chapter. **

**Adjuster:**** All I can say is that he will not realize it. Something else will happen, as I already have this planned out and don't want to reveal much. Sorry. **

**Onto this shit. I own nothing and all that jazz.**

**The First Arc Begins! A Lying Contractor!**

Naruto smiled as he caught the red ball headed towards his face. They, his team, were doing the same exercise they were doing two weeks ago, although it was much more advanced. They were still passing the ball towards each other, but they no longer said each others names and they were a much further distance away from each other, around three buildings worth. They were still blindfolded, however what made that more difficult was the fact that Kakashi kept rotating, or completely changing, the direction of the ball, proving it to be more difficult than before, and he was using a fair bit of strength to do so, allowing them to adapt to focusing chakra in key points of their body better.

'_It's time_,' Naruto thought, throwing the red ball in the air. He flowed through handseals before smirking.

"Fuuton: Reppūshō (Wind Release: Gale Palm)!"

'_A jutsu_?' Sakura thought, as she was the only one who heard him aside from Kakashi, as Sasuke was to far away.

Naruto slammed his palm on the ball as it appeared directly in front him, just as his jutsu activated. The jutsu sent out a burst of wind from his palm that sent the ball flying towards Sakura; however Kakashi reacted in time and kicked it toward Sasuke. Sasuke was prepared though, even if he didn't know the ball was coming towards him. As soon as he felt the wind touch his palm he channeled chakra into his arms, catching the ball without moving. However, he had a much harder time than he usually would catching the ball, causing him to raise an eyebrow.

"Kakashi," Sasuke began as he still refused to call Kakashi his sensei, even if the man was. "Why was this ball harder to catch than the other ones you've redirected? And don't say you didn't redirect it, neither Sakura, nor the dobe have the strength to put this much force on the ball."

"Mah, mah Sasuke. You just had to reveal my secrets didn't you? Everyone take off their blindfolds."

The genin did so.

"Well, the reason it was harder to catch was because Naruto here added a jutsu in to power it up, and of course the added force from me redirecting it just proved to make it more of a challenge."

"But why would Naruto add a jutsu to his pass," Sakura asked, walking up to Kakashi.

Kakashi waved his hand, signaling to the two boys to come over. As they did so Kakashi looked at Naruto.

"Do you want to explain?"

Naruto shrugged. "Sure, why not. Basically, Kakashi-sensei asked me to make this training exercise harder as we had already mastered it. So I added a Fuuton jutsu into my pass, although from my memory it wasn't towards the teme, it was towards Sakura-chan."

The two nodded, although Sakura wondered why it was directed at her specifically. While she had been training more, following Kakashi's advice to a point, she still didn't have the power to stop such an attack. Apparently, Naruto either had faith in her or he greatly overestimated her.

"Why you though," Sasuke asked, a hint of spite in his voice.

"Because of my Fuuton capabilities. You see, although I don't know why, I have a talent for Fuuton jutsu, although I still can't use any higher level ones yet, but still, Fuuton jutsu can speed something up or shred it to pieces. The one I used was to speed it up, which proved to be more of a challenge for you to catch, wasn't it teme?"

Sasuke just growled and looked away, clear annoyance on his face. Naruto smirked as if he just won a tournament, holding up the 'Peace' sign. Sakura just sighed at their behavior. She still loved Sasuke, and acted like a fangirl at times, but she had matured over these two weeks, and had come to accept that Naruto and Sasuke were friends and rivals, meaning they would always act like this, no matter how much she wanted to make Naruto shut up at times.

"Exactly," Kakashi said. He then looked up at the sky before saying, "Well, it's time for or daily missions, let's get going." The jonin then took off in a sprint towards the Hokage tower, followed by Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. This was another part of their training you see. It was endurance training. Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke had to try and keep up with Kakashi, who was using minimal amounts of chakra, without pumping any chakra into their legs to speed them up. It would allow them to not only move faster when using bursts of chakra, but move faster when they didn't proving to be a win-win situation.

The team reached the Hokage tower in record time, sprinting up the stairs, or in Kakashi's case running on the side of the wall, and breaching his office.

"We are ready for a mission Hokage-sama," Kakashi said, smiling at his genin. While they were panting, it wasn't as bad as they were when they had first done this exercise, which was when they were on the floor basically dying, and they had lost track of Kakashi.

"Well Kakashi-san, you really are working young Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, and Sakura-chan," Sarutobi said, smiling at their tired faces.

"They still have a lot of work," Kakashi said.

"Tch," Sasuke remarked, getting a laugh out of the Hokage.

"Hey! We're doing better than you could ever do, dattebayo!" Naruto cried indignantly.

The room became oddly quiet after he said that, and Naruto was blushing as everyone was looking at him. He began to inch back towards the door, embarrassed.

"It's a verbal tick alright…" Naruto mumbled, although everyone heard him.

The Hokage smiled, as he had heard if before, as had Kakashi, but Sakura and Sasuke were looking at him as if he had grown a second head.

'_The hell was that_,' Sasuke thought. '_I call this weirdo my rival_?'

'_What does that even mean_,' thought Sakura with a sweat drop.

"Well, onto more important topics, not including teasing Naruto-kun, we have several missions for you, like getting Lady Daimyo's cat-"

"DON'T FINSIH THAT SENTENCE!" the genin of Team 7 roared, each of them drawing a kunai and throwing it at the desk. While this could be considered an act of betrayal, neither the Anbu in the room, nor the Hokage moved. They understood why the were acting like that too after all. They too had done that mission as genin, and by the end of the day wanted to skin the cat alive, and all the other genin teams wanted too as well, even though Hiruzen did it when another lady was the Daimyo's wife, and had a different cat. He was beginning to think those things were cursed.

"Well then," Hiruzen said, laughing at them.

"We will skin that cat alive," Sakura said.

"Burn it," Sasuke said.

"And let it get torn to shreds!" Naruto finished.

"Well we have-"

"No," Naruto said. "I refuse to take any more of these kid-dy missions. This is just charity work, not fit for something of my status. I want a C-rank mission or higher, or else I'm not moving from this spot."

"Naruto, you can't just-" Kakashi began, but Sasuke cut him off.

"I agree. I want something of higher ranking too."

"As do I," Sakura said, although there was a hint of doubt in her voice.

Sarutobi groaned. It was that time, the time that every genin eventually demanded. The C-rank mission. It was a coming of age ritual basically. Eventually the genin would get bored with D-rank missions and would fight for a C-rank or above, although they only ever got C-rank. Still, Team 7 had done it faster than any other teams this year had.

"Kakashi-san do you think they are ready for a C-rank?"

"As ready as they'll ever get," Kakashi said, shrugging. C-ranks still involved very little threats, usually escorts to nearby villages or taking out a minor bandit problem, nothing your standard genin couldn't handle.

"Well, the only one we have currently is escorting a bridge builder to his home in Nami no Kuni (Land of Waves)."

Kakashi nodded. "We accept."

Naruto smiled and cheered, as Sasuke just smirked. Sakura however had the most expressed reaction, excluding Naruto. She gave a bright smile, although afterwards she showed a hint of doubt in her decision, still not quite confident in her improving abilities.

"Sakura, are you all right," Sasuke asked, looking at the pinkette.

"Y-Yes, Sasuke-kun. But why are you asking," the girl responded, as he rarely ever talked to her.

Sasuke smirked. "You've been improving lately, working and practicing with Naruto and I. You deserve at least some of my respect for that," he said before turning away and looking at the Hokage. Meanwhile, Sakura's heart soared, high above make-believe clouds.

'_SHANNARO! Sasuke-kun likes us! We're improving! Thanks a bunch Kakashi-sensei!_' The young girl thought, taking what Sasuke said in wrong direction ever so slightly, in assuming that he liked her back that is.

"Send in the bridge builder," Hiruzen said.

The door opened quickly afterwards, to reveal a grey-haired, bespectacled man with a large beard and dark eyes. He wore a sleeveless v-neck shirt with an obi, pants and a pair of sandals. There was a towel around his neck, and he wore a pointed hat on his head. Lastly, he had a bottle of bear in his hands.

"You give me brats to protect me? The girl looks like she's the broody ones fangirl, the broody one looks like he has a mental problem, and the blonde one looks like he couldn't harm a fly. They better be good enough," the man said.

However, when three kunai impaled his bottle of beer, courtesy of Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke he gulped.

"We are not in the mood for your shit," they whispered silently.

The man shivered, although he wasn't the only one. Hiruzen also shivered, although for a different reason. Those three talking at the same time and saying the same thing over and over again was creepy. Kakashi however seemed fine, as he was used to it.

"Well, Mr. Tazuna, I'd be careful what you say. These three are very capable, and very irritable," Kakashi said as he walked out of the room.

"Meet me at the sough gate at 12 o'clock tomorrow."

And with that Kakashi left the room, however his voice carried up the stairs. "Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, training time, again."

The three genin cheered, although Sasuke's and Sakura's was less enthusiastic then Naruto's, though for different reasons respectively.

XxX

Naruto groaned as Team 7 and the old man, Tazuna was his name if he recalled correctly, waited on Kakashi. Normally Naruto wouldn't have even arrived early enough to be bothered by Kakashi's tardiness, however as this was his first C-rank mission he wanted to get it underway already, even if it was just protecting some smug bridge builder.

"Why did you come here early Naruto?" Sasuke asked looking at him. "You knew Kakashi would be late. All of us but the old man did. I came to get in some last minute peace and quiet as those…_demons_…know where I live," Sasuke said.

Naruto nodded. While he didn't understand Sasuke's pain personally, having fangirls chase after you endlessly wasn't fun, at least from what he observed. When he was younger he would have killed for that, but after seeing the craziness their supposed love for the Uchiha had caused them to do, he was happy he didn't have fangirls.

"I am just excited for the mission, that's all, honestly," Naruto said. "Why did you come early Sakura-chan?"

Sakura rubbed the back of her sheepishly. "I'm the same as you."

"Hey, brats, where is that sensei of yours? Isn't he supposed to be a jonin or something? Doesn't that mean he should be on time? I'm an important contact you know," Tazuna grumbled.

Naruto just looked at him tiredly. "Too many questions, and I don't give enough fucks to answer them. Still, he is running unusually late."

Sakura just shook her head and apologized to the man. While he may be annoying he was still a paying customer, and they shouldn't ruin that. He could have hired a different village after all.

"Sorry I'm late," Kakashi said, appearing behind Naruto, and causing him to jump in the air with surprise.

"BASTARD!" Naruto roared throwing a punch at him, however Kakashi easily caught it.

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it before Naruto. Are we all ready to go?"

"Tch, you shouldn't be asking that, you were late after all," Sasuke said, just shaking his head as he walked out the gate, followed by Tazuna and Sakura, Naruto not far behind. Kakashi stood there confused.

"What I say?"

XxX

"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Naruto roared, after he slapped his fuinjutsu book closed. He had been studying the subject for literal hours, and while he may love the subject, he was going to snap if he read one more complicated intermediate level seal. Of course it didn't help that Naruto disliked reading to begin with.

"This silence is deafening, I'm sick of reading, Kakashi-sensei is to busy reading his smut to pay attention to us, AND I SWEAR TO FUCKING KAMI IF I READ ANOTHER FUCKING SEAL SOMEONE IS GONNA GET A KUNAI SHOVED SO FAR UP THEIR ASS-"

"We get it Naruto," Kakashi said, looking back at his student with a dramatic sigh written all over his face. Was his student always this hyperactive?

"Then do something about it," Naruto said, kicking a rock. It landed in a small puddle, although no ripples appeared.

'_Strange_,' Naruto thought, but ignored it, continuing on his walk.

'_That's not normal. Ripples should have spread through the puddle, especially considering the power behind Naruto's kicks. Plus, it hasn't rained in weeks, so why would there be two random puddles on the ground? Unless…what idiots_.'

As soon as the group passed the two puddles the puddles rose from the ground, solidifying into humans. They had used a genjutsu to seal their form, hiding from the group.

The shorter one of the duo had shoulder-length, wild dark-brown hair and dark eyes. He wore a gas mask that covered the lower of half of his face and a large, clawed gauntlet on his right arm, which had a chain coming out of it that attached to the others gauntlet. He wore a camouflage suit with bandages around his waist, dark-colored, knee length sandals and a ragged black cloak.

The other wore roughly the same thing; however one thing they wore brought out something unique to them, at least it was the first time the genin and Tazuna had ever seen such a thing.

They both wore Kirigakure headbands with slashes through them.

However, just because they had never seen one before didn't mean they didn't know what it meant.

'_Rogue ninja_,' the genin thought, taking up a position around Tazuna, Sakura and Naruto on his sides with Sasuke in front.

The ninja ran towards them, although Kakashi hadn't noticed it until it was to late, and he was wrapped in chains almost instantly.

"Target one, eliminated," the two men whispered creepily.

They yanked on their chains, ripping Kakashi to shreds. Sakura looked horrified, and her face paled, but Sasuke and Naruto had different reactions. Sasuke tensed, as if he was preparing for the fight of his life and was going to enjoy it, and Naruto had a look of pure fury on his face, as if he was a demon that was going to slaughter all who stood in his way to avenge his sensei.

"**Kill them boy, prove them to be weaker than you are. You are a host, YOU ARE MY VESSEL**!" Naruto heard a voice scream in his head. Naruto thought still had enough semblance of control to ask an important question.

'_Who are you_?'

"**KILL THEM CHILD**!"

Naruto was soon overcome by the voice and disappeared in a flash. He reappeared next to the taller one of the men; however he didn't look the same. His whisker marks were thicker and longer, his nails had become claws, his canine's were protruding from his mouth slightly, however there was something more ominous about his transformation.

His crimson orbs and the large amount of killing intent he was releasing. It had paralyzed Tazuna, Sakura, and even Sasuke. They couldn't move as they were experiencing the most pure form of fear. The fear a prey had when running from a predator.

Naruto lashed out with his clawed hand, claws ripping through flesh, and blood splattering over the ground. The man's throat had five slash marks on them, and blood was pooling on the ground and in Naruto's hands. The man tried to scream in pain but found he couldn't, not that it would have mattered as Naruto thrust his hand through his chest soon afterwards. Naruto pulled his hand out quickly, turning to face the other man, who was shaking in his boots, but it wasn't from fear.

"GOZU!" the man cried, charging Naruto, clear intent to kill him in his eyes.

However, Naruto didn't even hear the man shout Gozu's name, he was too preoccupied with the rush of instincts that overtook him. As he saw the man's gauntlet come up to carve out his throat he dodged it easily, as if the hand was moving in slow motion. Naruto then spun around, before slamming his foot into the man's head, snapping his neck, and sending him headfirst into a tree that was now painted red.

Naruto kept looking around, a sadistic look in his eye before he spotted his team and Tazuna. He smiled before he raised his hand and tensed, preparing to launch at them, however his world soon faded into nothingness and he fell to the ground, unconscious. Instantly the killing intent vanished.

Kakashi was behind Naruto, a sad look on his face, along with a worried one. That had been the Kyuubi in charge then, he knew it. Naruto wouldn't do such horrendous acts; he wasn't the type of person to do so. Kakashi looked at Naruto with worry. The seal must have weakened for it to have happened, or Naruto became aware of the Kyuubi and was starting to accept it. Neither were good things.

Kakashi picked Naruto up and put him on his back, sealing the two dead men in a scroll before looking at Tazuna, Sasuke, and Sakura.

"Are you okay?"

Sakura however didn't answer. Instead she ran to a bush and retched all over the ground, and Sasuke looked like he wanted to do the same, but managed to contain it. Tazuna looked pale and backed away from Naruto, fear entranced in his eyes. Kakashi sighed; the man and his genin had a right to be scared. They shouldn't have been forced to see that, but Kakashi had to assess how much control the Kyuubi had over Naruto when he was in the berserker state.

"Sasuke, go help Sakura. Tazuna, we need to have a chat."

The man nodded as Sasuke ran towards Sakura. However, once the boy saw her pale face he too had to retch at the events he had just witnessed.

"Tazuna why were those ninja after you?"

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," Tazuna lied, although it was rather blatant that he was bad at it.

"NO GAMES TAZUNA! You nearly cost my team their lives, and caused them to witness something they shouldn't have had to-" Tazuna interrupted him.

"That demon boy killing those two-" Kakashi interrupted the man right back.

"Call him that again and I will slit your throat, call this mission a failure, and say you ran off into the forest with a case of madness," Kakashi warned.

Tazuna stepped back, shame in his eyes.

"I pretended to die to see if this occurrence would be ninja attacking ninja, or ninja attacking bridge builder. I found it to be the latter, now, why were those ninja after you?"

"Gato," Tazuna whispered.

"Gato, as in the head of the Gato Company, one of the richest men in the world?"

"The very same. You see, while he may be a great businessman, he is also an illegal drug dealer, and recently came to Nami no Kuni (Land of Waves). He quickly took over the ports and has our small island in a stranglehold in terms of economy. All of our money goes to his absurdly high taxes, and we can't trade as he refused to let any ships leave, and few enter, and the ones that do work for him."

"That does not excuse you paying for a C-rank mission. This should have easily been a B-rank."

"I would have liked to pay the money for that, however the entire town came together with the money, just barely scrapping by a C-rank, it was the best we could afford."

"I see," Kakashi said. He looked at Sasuke and Sakura who were looking at him for leadership, as well as Naruto, only they were looking at him with fear and hate. Apparently they had taken on the villagers feelings towards him now. Naruto would have to work that out, with some help from him of course.

'_It seems all the teamwork I put into teaching them was wasted. Good luck, Naruto_.'

"Why don't we all set up camp for now," Kakashi suggested.

XxX

Naruto groaned as he awoke, only to be faced with an unfamiliar setting. He was in a sewer, with water flooding the ground, reaching up to his ankles. There were pipes along the ceiling, some blue, and some red leaking the aura he had felt not even moments ago.

Naruto then felt it. Whatever that aura belonged to was somewhere nearby, very close in fact. Naruto wandered the sewers, still trying to figure out where he was and where that aura came from, only to reach a large room with a metal cage and a piece of paper that had the kanji for 'Seal' on it.

"What the hell?"

A set of crimson eyes appeared and bore down on him, along with large, canine teeth.

"**Welcome vessel, TO MY CAGE**!"

The creature's massive roar sent water flying into the air and Naruto had to guard his head and channel chakra into his feet to stand, and then again he was still sent skidding backwards.

"Who are you," Naruto asked the massive creature, just as a form came into view.

It was a giant kitsune with red-orange fur and red eyes. It possessed the upper-body structure of a human, complete with opposable thumbs on its clawed hands. It seemed to be shrunk down, although Naruto assumed that if it wasn't and stood at full height it was the same height as the Hokage Monument, which was saying a lot. Naruto dared say a full grown was smaller than one of its eyes. And even then, Naruto felt it's size was still being limited.

"**I AM THE KYUUBI NO KITSUNE**!"

* * *

BET YOU GUYS WEREN'T EXPECTING THAT! Hey guys it's Kuma Akuma, and I'm sorry I just had to rub it in your face. Now onto the explanations before I get the questions. No the seal is not weakening, in fact Minato's seal is as strong as ever, however because Naruto never had Iruka there to tell him he wasn't the Kyuubi it has more influence over him, especially as Danzo would never do something to help him without gaining something from it. Because of this influence the Kyuubi was able to breach the seals defenses momentarily, of course with the help of Naruto's rampant running emotions. In the manga and anime it has been said that the Kyuubi could be classified as a construct of anger and hate, and the Kyuubi used Naruto's hate towards the demon brothers to allow it to have control, at least for a moment. This actually wasn't even the way I had planned on introducing Kurama, but it seemed like to good of an idea to pass up. If Iruka wasn't there in the anime it actually could have had a possibility of happening, at least in my opinion. And yes, Sasuke and Sakura now have a rightly-so fear of him, even if it isn't his fault. Who wouldn't be scared of your friend killing people with a look of glee on their face, before turning on you? I sure as hell would be. Now this will not last, but Naruto will have to work to gain their trust and friendship back, and it won't be easy. This may also affect the name of the bridge Tazuna is building, if he complete's it that is. Well keep reading, follow, favorite, and review. See you guys later, and avoid the Earl.


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